Max Verstappen feels Red Bull have a ‘good opportunity’ to win with Sergio Perez at pole position

Max Verstappen believes that Red Bull have a good chance of winning the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix through teammate Sergio Perez.

Perez claimed pole position at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Saturday (March 18), as championship leader Verstappen had to retire in Q2 due to technical problems.

After leading the charge in FP1, FP2, FP3 and the opening phase of Q1, Verstappen's car suffered a driveshaft issue. He will be starting the race from P15 on the grid.

Despite the personal setback, the Dutchman believes that Red Bull have a chance of winning in Saudi Arabia through Perez. He said:

"Yes [Perez has great chances for Sunday in the race by starting from pole position], for the team it is important that 'Checo' is up there. I'm sure we have a good opportunity with 'Checo' tomorrow in which he can get away."

Speaking about the issue that kept him from completing the qualifying session, he said:

"In Turn 10 the driveshaft broke. So that's really unfortunate. And also something I don't understand, because we've never really had any problems with it so far this year. But yeah, it happened. So We are going to analyze everything. And try to understand how it happened."

Despite being forced to start the race well behind the frontrunners, he remains confident of a podium finish — if the opening lap goes as planned. He opined:

"Yes, if everything goes well on the first lap, I think we can make a lot of progress. But we have to wait and see how far we can go. Starting in a bad position is usually a bit chaotic in the first round."

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Max Verstappen expects close competition from rivals in Saudi Arabia

Max Verstappen expects close competition from his rivals at the 2023 Saudi Arabian GP.

Verstappen and Red Bull won Bahrain's season opener in dominant fashion. The two-time reigning world champion dominated the rest of the field on his way to clinching victory.

That said, given Jeddah's low degradation track, the 25-year-old is expecting more competition from rivals Mercedes, Aston Martin, and Ferrari.

Speaking in an interview, where Sportskeeda was present, he said:

"We had a positive day but i think there's still quite a few things we can do better. The long run seemed fairly close to each other but it's more because of managing the tyres. [The tyres] They don't really let you push around here at the moment, so with a low deg circuit then, I think the lap times are all very close, so it's definitely not like Bahrain."