“That was by chance”: Max Verstappen rules out team play with Sergio Perez during qualifying in Barcelona

Reigning F1 world champion Max Verstappen was pipped by Lando Norris for the pole position for the Spanish GP, with a mere 0.020 seconds separating the two drivers, despite the Dutchman benefiting from a tow from his teammate.

In the early parts of the qualifying session, Verstappen seemed to have the edge over his rivals, with Norris remaining his closest competitor. In the final run, it came down to the two drivers, with the Red Bull driver missing out on the pole despite getting a slipstream from his teammate, Sergio Perez.

Max Verstappen elaborated on getting the tow from his teammate and ruled out any team play. He explained that after being informed of Perez's position on his outlap, he tried to "hang on" to his teammate to gain an advantage on the start-finish stretch.

In the post-qualifying interview, Verstappen said:

"I think in qualifying it was all coming together a bit nicer. The whole weekend we have tried to find a connected balance. I was quite happy in qualifying. I got a nice tow from Checo in Q3 but unfortunately, it was not enough. That's how it goes sometimes but overall we can still be happy with that performance and it's all to play for tomorrow."

"That was by chance. I didn't even know where Checo was on the lap and then they told me where he was so I was like 'I will try to hang onto him'," he added.

Lando Norris took his second career pole position and will start on the front row alongside Max Verstappen. The Ferrari and Mercedes duos were three-tenths of a second behind the pacesetters, with just 30 milliseconds separating the four drivers.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell share the second row, ahead of Ferrari pair, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr.

---

Max Verstappen elaborates on how external factors affected his final run

The Reigning F1 champion sat on provisional pole position with a few minutes left in the Q3 session. He improved by about two-tenths of a second, which was not enough for Lando Norris's blistering pace.

Max Verstappen suggested that track temperature and the wind made the Q3 session more challenging. However, he was happy with the performance of the car.

"With the temperature, it was more fun. Throughout qualifying the wind started to pick up a little bit. Maybe that made it a bit more difficult for us in Q3. But, overall a good performance from us," he said in the post-session interview.

Lando Norris and Verstappen are the favorites to win the Spanish GP, given that 30 of the 33 winners at the track have started the race from the front row.