Marko is short of superlatives for Verstappen: 'It's sensational'
F1 News
- Nicole Mulder
No battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris for pole position at Silverstone. Instead, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Norris made up the top three. Verstappen still managed to qualify on the second row despite damage to his RB20, an immense achievement according to Helmut Marko.
Marko applauds Verstappen's performance
Marko says Verstappen was missing a lot of downforce after his floor was "significantly damaged" by a trip through the gravel in Q1. "He had much less downforce. With a quick repair from the mechanics, some adjustments and a different wing and so on, we were able to reduce the downforce a lot," Marko is quoted by Motorsport-Total.com.
Verstappen thus drove with a considerable handicap, but nevertheless managed to make it to the second row of the grid. " Fourth place is sensational," jubilates Marko. The Red Bull consultant says Red Bull does not have a similar floor ready to replace it, but does not expect that to be a major problem.
Indeed, the new floor would only be half a tenth faster than the old one. So there are two options: "Either we fix it, or we switch to another type of floor," Marko said.
This article is written in collaboration with Sophia Crothall.