Max Verstappen’s Mad Japanese Quali Time Just a Sassy Response to a Petty Challenge

Max Verstappen was back to his dominant best after a dreadful outing in Singapore. The race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit had a lot of people pointing fingers at Verstappen. However, proving the critics wrong was never a big challenge for the Dutchman, as he added a ‘side quest’ for himself to accomplish at the behest of his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase.

Heading into Singapore, there were chances of the RB19 underperforming, but no one knew just how bad it would be for the Austrian team. Both their drivers failed to make it to Q3 for the first time since 2018, with the defending world champion Verstappen qualifying P11 for the feature race. Things were no better the next day as Red Bull and Verstappen saw their undefeated streak come to an end at the hands of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. Following a dismal result, the Dutchman and his team were motivated to come back stronger, and they did it with ease.

Max Verstappen blitzed the qualifying session over a simple challenge by GP

Suzuka was always going to be Red Bull’s territory. The track layout sits perfectly well with the demands of the RB19, and the team wanted to make a statement after a poor Singapore GP. Verstappen was more motivated than ever to achieve pole position, not only because of the ghost of Singapore but also because his race engineer challenged him to achieve a particular lap time, which was revealed by X user ‘Verstappen News.‘

 

By achieving a blistering lap time, not only did the 25-year-old complete Lambiase’s challenge, but also created an unprecedented record. His pole lap in Suzuka was 0.581s ahead of P2, which meant it was the largest pole margin since Michael Schumacher in 2004 (0.490s). Following the session, Verstappen, being Verstappen, chose to avoid taking the high road and had a curious statement for those who questioned him after the Singapore GP.

Verstappen has a savage statement for his critics

As the race in Singapore ended with Verstappen in P5 and Sergio Perez in P8, many people blamed the team’s inability to rectify the technical errors. Red Bull’s technical directives were the first in the line of fire as the crew faced major backlash for the car’s performance last week. Starting from FP1 in Suzuka, Verstappen is yet to finish below the top spot, with only the feature race remaining. After the end of Saturday’s qualifying, Verstappen replied to all the doubters and said they all “can go suck an egg.”

The pole lap means Verstappen will start at the front of the grid for the ninth time this season. McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri will line up right behind him in P2. The British team looked strong on softs in the straights but were no match for Verstappen in the RB19.