Verstappen confirms regulation change aided pole push

Max Verstappen has confirmed that a regulation change for the 2024 Formula 1 season helped his charge to pole position in China.

Following his victory in the sprint race earlier in the day, Verstappen was unchallenged en route to the fastest lap for qualifying.

The Dutchman ended the session three-tenths of a second ahead of team-mate Sergio Perez as he bagged his sixth consecutive pole position.

Following the sprint race earlier in the day, parc fermé conditions were ceased and teams were enabled to make changes to the setups ahead of qualifying.

It marks a different situation to campaigns of the past as in previous years, the set-ups were locked in place after Friday practice during sprint weekends.

“After the sprint race, it gave us a few more ideas for the car and I think the car worked even better in qualifying now,” Verstappen said.

“[I'm] definitely very happy with how the whole of qualifying went. The car was really nice to drive and also in Q3, I think that final lap felt pretty decent.

“[I'm] also very happy to be able to drive here in the dry. The conditions were pretty good, so it was a lot of fun.”

Adjustment

Verstappen added it took time to get back up to speed in qualifying having been in a race setting only hours before.

“Coming out of a race, when you then go back to low fuel, it probably takes one lap to get comfortable again,” he said.

“Plus new tyres are getting put on every single time so you know where you can find a little bit more in every single corner.

“And also because yesterday we had a bit of rain, we had extra sets of tyres so you could practice a bit more.

“Every time besides my first run in Q3, we were going a bit faster. I think the track evolution wasn't that massive around here, but that's fine.”