Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen is reportedly planning on taking some of his team out for dinner in Budapest, during this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Ahead of Free Practice 1 on Friday, it was reported by De Telegraaf that Verstappen took 30 Red Bull employees out to dinner last year in Budapest, something he’s planning to replicate this weekend.
However, it’s unlikely that he’ll be going into the capital city for a meal on Saturday, with the Dutchman having been frustrated to have missed out on pole.
Verstappen failed to improve on his final Q3 lap which saw him beaten to pole by Lewis Hamilton, who secured his 104th career pole position.
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Hamilton’s final lap in Q3 brought Verstappen’s run of five consecutive pole positions to an end, something which seemed like it’d never happen given his dominance.
However, the Dutchman admitted after the session that he’s been “struggling the whole weekend”, whilst he found qualifying “really difficult”.
“Not much happened. I’ve been struggling the whole weekend to find a good balance. Every session has been up and down,” Verstappen said.
“Today also in qualifying, really difficult, Q1 and Q2 to just feel confident to really attack corners.
“I thought my first run in Q3 was quite good, but then second round again no feeling, tried to push a little bit more, you lose the rear, you lose the front.
“I mean, it was still second, but I think we should be ahead with the car we have normally, but so far this weekend I think we haven’t been on it.”
Verstappen had been expected to claim pole position fairly comfortably, due to the fact that Red Bull have introduced an upgrades package in Hungary.
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Despite not achieving pole, he admitted that the upgrades package “works”, with his result having been down to his setup.
“I think the update works,” Verstappen said.
“But I think we just didn’t really put everything together setup wise, because I think today was just all over the shop and not exactly where we wanted to be.”