Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen hopes to put his season-opening disappointment behind him and show the potential of the Red Bull car at the Saudi Arabian GP. Photo: Rudy Carezzevoli – Pool/Getty Images

Max Verstappen unsure how Red Bull will perform in Brazil

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen isn’t sure how his car will perform at this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen hopes to put his season-opening disappointment behind him and show the potential of the Red Bull car at the Saudi Arabian GP. Photo: Rudy Carezzevoli – Pool/Getty Images

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen isn’t sure how his car will perform at this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

Verstappen is hopeful of shedding his sprint race curse, which has seen him do well on Saturday only to falter on Sunday when the experimental qualifying event is run.

Max Verstappen hopes to snap sprint curse

In the last two Grand Prix where a sprint race was run on Saturday, Verstappen came together with World Driver’s Championship rival Lewis Hamilton.

“It’s difficult to say how competitive we are going to be in Brazil,” said the Dutchman. 

“We won in 2019, but it was a close battle all the way and I expect something similar this time.

“It’s also a sprint race weekend…. I tend to do well in the sprint, but then I get bad race results so this time let’s try and turn it around.”

Interlagos has a history of throwing up incident-packed races and in a season full of drama, intrigue, allegations and counter-allegations and high speed crashes, you wouldn’t bet against fireworks in São Paulo on Sunday.

Verstappen would love to bag another win to strengthen not only his World Driver’s Championship bid but also Red Bull’s Constructor’s Championship push. 

“It would mean a lot to the Team to win, we of course work for both Championships so to get those points today was amazing. 

“Checo has been on fire for the past few races. For now, we are taking it race by race and we just need to keep pushing.”

Verstappen will be looking to build on his victory at the Mexico Grand Prix which gave him a 19 point lead in the championship.

“It felt really good to win in Mexico,” Verstappen said.

“As a Team, it almost couldn’t have gone any better for us, it was great to have Checo up there with me and that’s what we want, we have to keep on pushing. 

“I really didn’t expect qualifying to go how it did but I always knew the car would be good in the race. We had a pace advantage and I was able to manage it to the end of the race.”

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Formula One: World championship standings

Formula One world championship standings ahead of this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos:

Drivers

1. Max Verstappen (NED) 312.5 pts, 2. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) 293.5, 3. Valtteri Bottas (FIN) 185, 4. Sergio Perez (MEX) 165, 5. Lando Norris (GBR) 150, 6. Charles Leclerc (MON) 138, 7. Carlos Sainz (ESP) 130.5, 8. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) 105, 9. Pierre Gasly (FRA) 86, 10. Fernando Alonso (ESP) 60, 11. Esteban Ocon (FRA) 46, 12. Sebastian Vettel (GER) 42,13. Lance Stroll (CAN) 26, 14. Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) 20, 15. George Russell (GBR) 16, 16. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) 10, 17. Nicholas Latifi (CAN) 7, 18. Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA) 1, 19. Mick Schumacher (GER) 0, 20. Robert Kubica (POL) 0, 21. Nikita Mazepin (RUS) 0

Constructors

1. Mercedes 478.5 pts, 2. Red Bull-Honda 477.5, 3. Ferrari 268.5, 4. McLaren-Mercedes 255, 5. AlphaTauri-Honda 106, 6. Alpine-Renault 106, 7. Aston Martin-Mercedes 68, 8. Williams-Mercedes 23, 9. Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari 11, 10. Haas-Ferrari 0