Despite the rain, the delayed qualifying and the grid penalties for both of their drivers, it was a very positive Saturday for the Red Bull racing team in Monza on Saturday.
While others struggled around them Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo qualified in second and third and after the lengthy delay was the absolute best the team could have hoped for.
Max extracted a much better performance from the extreme tyres and made the right decisions in adapting to the changing conditions through the session to capitalise in the final shootout and set the second best time.
"Qualifying was positive today and I was happy with it. To be second is, of course, a very nice surprise and in the wet I always enjoy it. Q1 and Q2 with the tyre choice was a bit difficult as the intermediates never seemed to work very well,' Max said.
“In Q3 on the new extremes I didn't have a lot of grip, I was sliding around and I never really felt that comfortable. I cooled the tyres for one lap and then my final lap was luckily not too bad, it wasn't perfect but second was a good result for us.”
“We always knew we had the penalties to take tomorrow and having a good Qualifying means I hopefully start 15th rather than at the back. Let's hope we can overtake, move to the front and I think realistically the aim will be for fifth or sixth."
