08 July 2023 , 17:27
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Max Verstappen laughed off his qualifying crash at the British Grand Prix and giggled when asked if it has knocked his confidence.
The Dutchman secured pole position for the Silverstone race. In doing so, he knocked Lando Norris off the top of the timesheets – much to the disappointment of many in the stands.
But it wasn't a perfect session for the Red Bull racer. He suffered a mishap towards the end of Q1 when he misjudged his exit from his garage and broke his front wing on a wall at the side of the pit lane.
Luckily for him, the session was still red-flagged at the time so he didn't miss out on any running. His team quickly changed the nose of his car and sent him on his way to pole.
Speaking in the post-session press conference, Verstappen was surprised by a question regarding the incident. Asked if it had an effect on his confidence, he couldn't help but giggle.
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"To hit the wall in the pit lane?" he replied, almost incredulously. He then added, clearly speaking sarcastically: "Yeah, I'm scared to drive out of my box now!
Giving a slightly more serious additional response, he added: "No, it has nothing to do with confidence. My engineer asked me what happened and I said, 'I understeered'. So yeah, it happens."
Verstappen still took pole at Silverstone despite his pit lane mishap (Getty Images)When asked when was the last time he hit a wall, Verstappen brought up the infamous crash he suffered here in 2021 after contact with Lewis Hamilton at Copse which took him out of that race.
"I don't know the last time I hit a wall... the last time I hit a wall proper was here a couple of years ago," he said, with a wry smile on his face. The Dutchman then concluded: "These things happen. I've crashed once before in the pit lane but not in F1."
Verstappen will be joined on the front row by Norris, while Oscar Piastri lines up behind them in third place – by far the F1 rookie's best qualifying result of the season to date.