15/03/2025
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: "I think today's performance was the best we could have hoped for.
"Yesterday's practice sessions were quite tough, but we made quite a few improvements to the car and it felt a lot better to drive. The gap is still big to McLaren and we don't have the same pace as them at the moment, so there are still improvements to be made. However, we performed better than I expected and the car has given us enough confidence to push. Ultimately P3 today is a good result that I am happy with and it is good that we have found a bit more pace. Tomorrow, I don't mind if it is dry or wet, but I do think it will be a lot nicer for the fans if it is good weather for them. I will just do my best and see how we go tomorrow."
Liam Lawson: "After missing P3 we expected the start of quali to be tough, as we missed a lot of soft tyre prep that others got in. So, to be honest the first laps were expected to be off and then we were planning to just build through the session. But obviously going off on that second lap put everything out of order a bit. The last lap was decent until the final sector, we were about half a second up and we should have just kept improving but I had a big drop with my tyres and made a mistake - that's the main reason we are out, it was stupid from me. Getting the tyres in the right window is something we have been battling with both cars this weekend and it's something we missed practising with, when we had an improved set-up, with a big step up for P3. Missing P3 doesn't help any of this, we have had a huge lack of running, but I also shouldn't be going off. If I had put it together, we wouldn't be in this situation. It is obviously not a good start, but we will have tomorrow to try and make something out of it, the weather is set to be variable, so we'll see. I would love some rain to come to throw some options in there for us."
Christian Horner: "Well, we are back and it was a very encouraging performance from Max to have the provisional pole on the first run. But it always felt like McLaren had the better lap time. Fair play to them. I thought Max did a very good job and I think the Team did a very good job to improve the car throughout the weekend. It's a shame for Liam, he missed the whole of FP3 due to a technical issue, he has never raced here before, it puts him immediately on the back foot, it's a lot to ask of him in qualifying. His first run went well and then unfortunately mistakes were made. Second row of the grid, P3 for tomorrow's race. Who knows what's going to happen weather wise, it's all to play for."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Albert Park here.