{"id":509990,"date":"2025-10-18T17:56:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T17:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/509990\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T17:56:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T17:56:15","slug":"the-data-behind-verstappens-crazy-corner-and-how-he-beat-norris-to-f1-sprint-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/509990\/","title":{"rendered":"The data behind Verstappen\u2019s \u201ccrazy\u201d corner and how he beat Norris to F1 sprint pole"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> topped the times at the Circuit of the Americas<\/a> on Friday in the first of two Formula 1 qualifying sessions this weekend \u2013 another sign of Red Bull’s<\/a>\u00a0recent progress with the RB21.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heading into the race weekend, team boss Laurent Mekies suggested that Austin\u2019s medium-speed corners would suit McLaren<\/a> better, saying McLaren \u201ckilled\u201d\u00a0Red Bull in Zandvoort<\/a>, but Verstappen\u2019s performance in Texas underlines the step that the team has made.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It applies not only to pure performance, but also operationally. In earlier parts of the season, Fridays have often been a weakness for Red Bull. More often than not, the team had to overhaul its setup overnight before finding an acceptable compromise for qualifying. This time, with only one practice session, the RB21 was immediately competitive. Above all, it is confirmation that the team understands its 2025 car better than in the first half of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Red Bull\u2019s practice approach: Tsunoda\u2019s set-up provides a direction\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because of that limited practice time at COTA, Red Bull split its programme between the cars of Verstappen and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> to gather two different data sets.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring any qualifying session we are trying to maximise the performance of the car by trying to go as low as possible on set-up,\u201d technical director Pierre Wache explained. \u201cDuring FP1 we tested two types of set-up across the two cars, and we realised that Yuki\u2019s set-up was a little bit better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That insight was then applied to both cars ahead of sprint qualifying, which \u201chelped the high-speed bottoming that we have in the corners here,\u201d Wache added. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Principal<\/p>\n

Photo by: Zak Mauger \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

“It achieved performance in the car without losing out in the low speed,\u201d Wache said. \u201cThen it was a very good performance extraction from Max today. He really put it all together to get pole.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Where Wache mentions Verstappen’s pole lap, others at Red Bull were mostly looking at the Dutchman\u2019s final sector. Helmut Marko told Autosport\u00a0that Verstappen went \u201csideways\u201d in Turn 1 \u2013\u00a0which Verstappen referred to on team radio \u2013\u00a0but recovered all of that in the last sector. Team boss Laurent Mekies singled out the very last corner in particular.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, he manages to surprise us every time he gets into that car. It\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d Mekies told Sky Sports F1. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see all the hard work he\u2019s putting into it in the background to get to that; it doesn\u2019t come by coincidence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true to say that on that lap you nearly felt that he would \u2013 and he did \u2013 pull a crazy last corner in order to beat Lando. Obviously, he doesn\u2019t have that information in the car, but he sent the car in the last corners and managed to create that small gap. It\u2019s great for the team to have that sort of driver, and today it proved decisive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Data confirms Marko and Mekies’ analysis\u00a0<\/p>\n

A look at GPS data backs up Marko and Mekies\u2019 words about the last sector. In the graphics below, Verstappen and Norris\u2019 fastest SQ3 laps are compared. It shows that Verstappen was 2 km\/h faster than Norris at the end of the main straight \u2013 311 versus 309 km\/h \u2013 but McLaren<\/a> had slightly better traction out of the final corner to start the flying lap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This gave Norris a 0.026 second advantage at the first braking point. Verstappen\u2019s small slide in Turn 1 \u2013 the one that Marko mentioned \u2013 then increased the gap to just over a tenth by the corner exit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Through the flowing section of high-speed corners that followed \u2013\u00a0reminiscent of Suzuka\u2019s Esses \u2013\u00a0Verstappen clawed that time back. It\u2019s no coincidence, as it underlines the RB21\u2019s strength in fast corners. From there, the two traded hundredths: Norris generally braked a fraction earlier than the reigning world champion but enjoyed marginally better exits. It meant, just as Mekies pointed out, that everything came down to the final corner. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Exiting the penultimate turn, Norris led Verstappen by 0.031 seconds. In what is now officially the Andretti corner, the familiar pattern repeated itself: telemetry confirms that Norris lifted and braked slightly earlier than Verstappen, who carried more speed into the corner and still managed to rotate the car. Just after the apex, Verstappen had flipped the deficit into a 0.130 second advantage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Norris, braking earlier, could once again get on the throttle a bit sooner and regained some of the lost time thanks to a better exit, but not enough to get back ahead. On the line, Verstappen still enjoyed a 0.071-second margin to get his first sprint pole of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The combination of extremely late braking and still managing a relatively good exit \u2013\u00a0something Verstappen has shown earlier this year in Suzuka as well \u2013\u00a0earned him pole, even if it\u2019s just for a sprint race this time. With what Mekies called a \u201ccrazy\u201d last corner, Verstappen made up a full tenth \u2013\u00a0exactly the margin that made the difference on Friday in Austin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The GPS data from Verstappen and Norris in SQ3<\/p>\n

\"Verstappen <\/p>\n

Foto door: F1-Tempo<\/p>\n

\"Verstappen <\/p>\n

Foto door: F1-Tempo<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen topped the times at the Circuit of the Americas on Friday in the first of two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,163541,393,707,4884,1711,1073,1710,12,1144,749,712,166849,16,15,163611,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-509990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-circuit-of-the-americas","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-lando-norris","14":"tag-max-verstappen","15":"tag-mclaren","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-northern-ireland","18":"tag-red-bull-racing","19":"tag-scotland","20":"tag-the-data-behind-verstappenu2019s-u201ccrazyu201d-corner-and-how-he-beat-norris-to-f1-sprint-pole","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-united-states-gp","24":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115396463607592782","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}