Liam Lawson has shared one thing Max Verstappen did on his pole lap at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that left him stunned.
Verstappen set the fastest time in qualifying for the second straight weekend to start the new season.
And one feature of his lap particularly struck Visa Cash App RB reserve Lawson, speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
Verstappen outpaced his nearest challenger Charles Leclerc by more than three tenths of a second at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Teammate Sergio Perez was a couple of hundredths further back in third place.
The Dutchman then went on to win the race in comfortable fashion, with Perez 13 seconds adrift when race control applied a five-second penalty for an unsafe release.
Liam Lawson names ‘extremely difficult’ thing Max Verstappen did
Lawson says Verstappen is currently at one with the RB20, and that was most evident in the top-ten shoot-out in Jeddah.
He believes that the 26-year-old kissed the wall in one or two spots around the lap, squeezing out the maximum lap time without doing any damage to his car.
He said: “Where Max is at right now with the Red Bull, the car is in such a good window, and he’s so comfortable with it.
“The best way to see it is that, when you look at his qualifying lap in Jeddah, he doesn’t miss an apex and he gets so close to the wall in places.
“Turn four – I’m pretty sure he touched it on the inside, which is extremely difficult to do, to be that precise.
“But it’s not just turn four, it’s turn 10, it’s turn 22 as well, it’s everywhere.
“Basically he’s so precise with it, and it’s because he’s so confident with the car, and it’s those things that really make up lap time as well.”
Verstappen looks to shut down Leclerc
If there was any single ‘weakness’ for Verstappen and Red Bull in a virtually flawless 2023 season, it was qualifying.
The Bulls won 21 of the 22 Grands Prix, with car number 33 responsible for 19 of those victories.
But Verstappen failed to secure pole position on 10 occasions, a surprising statistic given his robotic dominance.
Ferrari had their fare share of poles with seven, five from Leclerc and two from Carlos Sainz.
In his career as a whole, Verstappen has won 56 races despite only topping the times in Q3 on 34 occasions.
He’ll hope to assert his superiority earlier in the weekend this year, even if he’s already proven he can comfortably come through and win.
The RB20 is looking like another masterpiece from Adrian Newey right now, one that could match or even surpass the record of its predecessor.
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