The words to describe Max Verstappen‘s season are running out. The bar was high, but his last two laps in Japan have raised it to excellence. Even in Q2 he had the luxury of outperforming everyone on a used tire. The car is on the rails, but Verstappen controls it like nobody else. It is the only reasonable explanation for the difference with Checo Perez.
The Mexican was 0.773 off this time on the same tire on his last attempt. “I’m going to set up a tire store,” joked the Dutchman when Mario Isola, head of Pirelli, congratulated him on taking another pole. The two-time Red Bull champion has nine pole positions out of a possible 16, or 56% of those contested. “The only thing I can say is that our cars are the same,” warned the Dutchman, referring to Perez.
At the press conference, the question about the new FIA regulation on wing flexing and how it might have affected Singapore was not long in coming. Verstappen did not mince his words and answered all those who had doubts at some point: “The new regulations did not affect us, to hell with the skeptics.” The champion was back…. It was time to vindicate himself off the track as well.
Back to reality at Suzuka
Christian Horner confirmed at Marina Bay that they had not changed anything on their car, just on their circuit, which they are not particularly good at. The data confirms it, as they have never won or achieved a pole position in Singapore. “I was really looking forward to a weekend like this after the bad time we had in the previous race,” said the Dutchman on taking pole just a week later. Japan was a return to reality, Singapore a mere mirage
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