"I know this track is very hard to pass" - Max Verstappen hopes his power issues are 'fixable' after starting P10 on the grid at 2022 F1 Hungarian GP

Max Verstappen, who was already wary of his chances at challenging Ferrari at the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix, now only hopes that Red Bull is able to fix the power issues that he faced during the qualifying session on Saturday. Despite showing extremely strong form in Q1 and Q2, the reigning world champion will start the race from P10 after facing issues with his DRS in Q3.

As reported by F1.com in a post-qualifying media interaction, Verstappen said:

“We made some changes which were very positive, so a lot of guys here and back at the factory were analysing a lot of stuff, and I think they understood and that’s of course very promising and very good. The car was a lot nicer to driver today but we couldn’t really show it in Q3 because of the power issue. I still don’t know what it is. I need to talk to the team, but I hope everything is fixable.”

He further said:

“I know this track is very hard to pass at, so we have to be patient as well. This year has shown that a lot of things can happen even on Sunday, so we just have to be patient.”

The Hungaroring is known to be a relatively difficult track to overtake on, with slightly better chances for drivers to defend their positions, as indicated by the fact that a large majority of races here have been won by drivers starting the Grand Prix from the top four.

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Max Verstappen takes the positives from frustrating qualifying session ahead of 2022 Hungarian GP

Despite only securing P10 for the starting grid at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen is choosing to focus on the fact that the team managed to take significant steps to improve from an underwhelming Friday in Budapest.

Admitting that there was plenty to learn in terms of their issues and weaknesses from qualifying, as reported by PlanetF1, Max Verstappen emphasized that these could significantly help the team in future races. He said:

“I think the turnaround from yesterday was amazing, I think the guys and girls back at the factory as well, there was a lot of analysing going on to understand what was not really working that well yesterday. In a way, that’s a positive about today. We understood what went wrong and the car was so much better today in terms of handling on a track that doesn’t really suit us. So that’s a big positive for the rest of the year anyway, that we can, even on a track where we are not that strong, be competitive.”

The Red Bull driver continued:

“Of course, I still would have liked to start in the top three and I definitely think we had the pace for it because, even in Q2, we looked very strong, comfortably. So yeah, [it was] a good turnaround.”

With the new regulations this season, the cars certainly seem to be able to get a lot closer when it comes to overtaking, potentially giving Max Verstappen some hope when it comes to an opportunity to secure his eighth win of the 2022 season this weekend.