2021 Italian GP : Post-Sprint comments from Max and Red Bull

Max Verstappen claimed pole position for the 2021 Italian Grand Prix after finishing P2 in Saturday’s 100km Sprint behind Valtteri Bottas. He is set for his 23rd consecutive top-3 start on Sunday.

Sergio Perez will start the Sunday’s race from P8 on the grid, he gained net one place in Saturday’s Sprint race.

Verstappen wasn’t attempting to make much of an impression on Bottas, knowing full well that a penalty would be afflicting the Finn for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

The Dutchman took two valuable points by finishing P2 and extends his championship lead to 5 points over Lewis Hamilton.

Max Verstappen (P2) :

“To be on pole tomorrow at a track like this is a real positive for us, we had a good start and the race went better than expected. We scored a few championship points and it’s great to be starting at the front tomorrow.

I was giving it my all to keep close to Valtteri today, but I still expect a tough race tomorrow as Lewis is starting in P4 and they have a bit more pace than us, we know we are slower than the Mercedes here.

I’m hoping for another clean start tomorrow so I can create a bit of a gap at the beginning, because I will definitely need it later in the race. It’s going to be an interesting battle and we’ll see what happens, we’ll keep pushing and try to make the most out of it.”

Sergio Perez (P8) :

“I think we have a good chance in the race tomorrow, we start P8 and there should be more opportunities to come through the field with our strategy. I was hoping to gain a few more places, but my start wasn’t ideal and it was pretty hard to pass. We need to work hard tonight to find some more pace, but I am looking forward to it.  On the incident with Stroll, I just didn’t have anywhere to go so had to cut the corner to avoid hitting the curb and damaging my race, I gave back the position as soon as I was able to.”