Max Verstappen and Red Bull made ‘last resort’ change to his F1 car that earned him British Grand Prix pole

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Max Verstappen claimed a sensational pole at the British Grand Prix, having snatched the front row start away from Lando Norris.

Red Bull looked lost on Friday as Verstappen complained about the balance of his RB21, with onboards visibly showing that the car was producing a lot of understeer.

Verstappen thought the car needed to be worked on in all areas overnight between Friday and Saturday to stand a chance, while Christian Horner felt Red Bull was losing out primarily at Luffield and midway through Becketts.

Jenson Button was impressed by Verstappen’s speed on his pole effort, after seeing him through the high-speed Maggotts and Becketts section.

The high-speed changes of direction and slow corners have been troublesome for Red Bull at recent races, but Anthony Davidson and Button think the team made a crucial setup change for Verstappen, which resulted in his pole when speaking on Sky Sports F1.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull took out downforce as ‘last resort’ setup change

Verstappen was the last car to run at the end of Q3 owing to the track evolution, which ramped up as the track temperatures cooled between the first part of qualifying and the end.

Red Bull gave themselves the best possible chance of a front row start for Verstappen, which Button believes was down to one key setup change.

Button: “Do we think that Max and Red Bull took out downforce to balance the car, more so than to think ‘Oh we need more speed’ because he was struggling so much with that understeer at high speed that maybe the last resort would be to take rear downforce out to get a good balance because he had a lot less understeer.”

Davidson: “You’re limited in the window of configuration of what your aero can allow sometimes. You get maxed out, or in terms of the maximum downforce, you can run the front flap or the minimum you can put into the front wing. With an educated guess, that’s probably the situation the team found themselves in. You get to the end of that particular balance scope of that downforce configuration.”

Max Verstappen quickest in speed traps during British GP qualifying

One of the key statistics from qualifying was the times in the speed trap, with Verstappen topping out compared to rivals.

The Red Bull driver was a full 5mph faster than Oscar Piastri and 4mph faster than Lando Norris, while Charles Leclerc hit the 200mph mark.

Ferrari was supposed to be a contender but both their drivers spoiled their laps with mistakes at Club corner, with Leclerc seen visibly frustrated in the cockpit after his final effort.

Last year’s winner Lewis Hamilton will start from fifth place behind George Russell, having out-qualified Leclerc for only the fourth time this year.