Motor racing-Overtaking at the Madring? Not a chance, says Verstappen

Formula One F1 - Spanish Grand Prix - Madring, Madrid, Spain - September 12, 2026 Red Bull's Max Verstappen during qualifying REUTERS/Albert Gea

MADRID, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Max ⁠Verstappen rated his chances of overtaking as almost nil in Sunday's Spanish Grand ⁠Prix and said he was counting on rivals suffering from higher tyre degradation to ‌get ahead.

The four-time world champion qualified third on Saturday for Red Bull, behind McLaren's Lando Norris on pole position and Mercedes's championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

Asked whether he reckoned he could challenge Norris, Verstappen replied: "It will be tough. I ​mean, even best case scenario and you're faster, you can't ⁠pass. There are no corners where ⁠you can pass so you need to rely on people degging (suffering tyre wear) very aggressively.

"The long ⁠runs (in ‌practice) were very tough, a lot of deg for everyone, so that will probably be the key point tomorrow. But even with that I need to still figure ⁠out a corner where to pass."

Mercedes's title contender George Russell ​suggested on Friday, half-joking, that ‌thermal degradation might be so extreme -- with the signature 'La Monumental' banked curve really 'hurting' the ⁠tyres -- that a ​six-stop strategy might be necessary.

Antonelli, 66 points clear of Russell at the top of the standings after 13 rounds, agreed tyre management would be critical at a track with a particularly long pitlane and smooth, ⁠high-grip asphalt with fast corners.

"We don't really know how ​the hard tyre is, how resilient it is, so tomorrow we might have two stops, three stops, we'll see," said the Italian.

"But the key is expecting that first thing is try and manage (the ⁠tyres) as much (as possible) without giving up too much time."

Norris missed Friday's second practice after McLaren needed to change his car's gearbox and said he had yet to do many laps with a high fuel load.

"I've got to do my homework, got to see what (teammate) Oscar (Piastri) did ​yesterday, see what we can prepare for," said the Briton. "I also ⁠lost that little indication of what the degradation will be like tomorrow, this chance of high ​degradation.

"You want certainly a little bit of a feeling of ‌how it degrades, what corners really to save, ​all those little things, you want those feelings from the car and at the minute I don't have any of them."

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; editing by Clare Fallon)

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一级方程式赛车（F1）——西班牙大奖赛——马德里赛道，西班牙马德里——2026年9月12日，红牛车队的马克斯·维斯塔潘在排位赛中（路透社/阿尔伯特·吉亚摄）

马德里，9 月 12 日（路透社）——马克斯·维斯塔潘认为他在周日的西班牙大奖赛中超车的机会几乎为零，并表示他指望对手因轮胎磨损严重而取得领先。

这位四届世界冠军周六代表红牛车队获得排位赛第三名，排在杆位迈凯伦车队的兰多·诺里斯和积分榜领头羊梅赛德斯车队的基米·安东内利之后。

当被问及是否认为自己能挑战诺里斯时，维斯塔潘回答说：“这会很艰难。我的意思是，即使在最好的情况下，你速度更快，你也无法超车。赛道上没有可以超车的弯道，所以你只能依靠其他车手非常激进地磨损轮胎。”

“长距离练习非常艰难，对每个人来说都很吃力，所以这可能是明天比赛的关键。但即便如此，我仍然需要找到一个可以超车的弯道。”

梅赛德斯车队的冠军争夺者乔治·拉塞尔周五半开玩笑地表示，轮胎的热衰减可能非常严重——标志性的“纪念碑弯”倾斜弯道真的会“伤害”轮胎——以至于可能需要采取六停策略。

经过 13 轮比赛，安东内利在积分榜上领先拉塞尔 66 分，他同意，在这条维修区通道特别长、路面光滑、抓地力强、弯道速度快的赛道上，轮胎管理至关重要。

“我们不太清楚硬胎的性能如何，它的耐用性如何，所以明天我们可能会进站两次，三次，我们拭目以待，”这位意大利车手说道。

“但关键在于要预料到，首先要做的就是尽可能地控制轮胎，同时又不损失太多时间。”

诺里斯因迈凯伦车队需要更换赛车变速箱而错过了周五的第二次练习赛，他说他还没有在高油量的情况下跑过很多圈。

“我得做做功课，看看（队友）奥斯卡（皮亚斯特里）昨天做了什么，看看我们能准备些什么，”这位英国人说道。“我也失去了对明天场地衰减情况的些许了解，也就是场地衰减程度可能很高的可能性。”

“你当然希望对赛车性能的下降有所感觉，哪些弯道需要保留，所有这些小细节，你都希望从赛车上获得这些感觉，但目前我一点感觉都没有。”

（艾伦·鲍德温报道；克莱尔·法伦编辑）

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