Spanish GP: Red Bull Explain How Lewis Hamilton Beat Max Verstappen To Barcelona Pole

Lewis Hamilton took what was his 100th pole during qualifying at Spanish GP, beating his title rival, Max Verstappen, by just 0.036 seconds. However, the Dutchman could and should have prevented Hamilton from making history in Barcelona – according to a claim made by Red Bull consultant, Dr. Helmut Marko, that is.

Never one to hold back from expressing his honest feelings, he was slightly dissatisfied with Max’s performance. Although he went purple in both the first and the final sector, he lost it out in the middle sector.

“We only lost it in one corner, that was corner 4. In this sector we lost two tenths,” Marko informed after looking at the data after qualifying ended. (Quotes translated from German using Google)

Max won the first sector from Lewis (21.759 to 21.798) and the third by one-tenth of a second. However, he lost two-tenth on turn 4. So, he’ll be disappointed as pole was up for grabs.

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Marko confident of Red Bull catching Lewis Hamilton on Sunday

On the bright of their disappointing qualifying performance, they have a car that is very competitive. Marko concluded, “We are at eye level. From that point of view we are going into the race positively because we know that we have a very, very fast racing car.”

However, the biggest setback for them was Sergio Perez‘s performance. The Mexican could only lap the eight-fastest time of all the drivers. On the other hand, Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, will begin the race just behind Verstappen.

“We had already hoped that we could strategically involve him. He was of course handicapped by the spin in the first attempt. Now let’s see. The race will be long here,” Marko uncharacteristically did not criticize his driver.

Red Bull will start the race with both the cars donning the medium compound tires. They believe that it plays to the strength of their car – “We already achieved the fastest lap on the yellow tire. So it all looks positive.”

A very interesting main event lies ahead of us tomorrow. Let’s see if Verstappen and Red Bull claw back the deficit to their main rivals.