Verstappen: We had to take risks in qualifying

Max Verstappen won qualifying in Monaco for the first time in his career, although until the last moment it seemed that he would not take pole.

Max Verstappen (1st): “I’m very pleased because we knew we’re going to have some difficulties this weekend, and although we didn’t work well yesterday, we gradually added to it. But in qualifying it was necessary to give everything and take risks, risk everything.

In the decisive attempt, the first sector was not ideal, in the 1st corner I acted too carefully. When I realized I was behind, I squeezed everything out of the car in the last sector, hit the barriers several times, but in the end I’m really happy to have won pole position at this track.

Tomorrow you have to start well, because in Monaco there is a very short acceleration before the 1st corner, but a lot can happen during the race – the safety car can leave, it can rain and so on. You can continue this list yourself – in general, you need to take into account the influence of such a factor as chaos.

But I think our car can have a good pace, so the most important thing is to stay calm.”

Sergio Perez (20th): “I was happy with the balance of the car, and of course in the first qualifying session you go further and try to find a new limit of what is possible. But going into the 1st corner the car started spinning, and this happened quite late, when there was nothing I could do.

I became a passenger, I had nowhere to go, I couldn’t cut the corner, but I couldn’t fit in either, and it all ended with me crashing into the stop.

It was a serious mistake on my part, my apologies to the team. I am very dissatisfied with myself and tomorrow I will have a very difficult day because it will be difficult to regain positions.