Picture Credit: Formula 1
Max Verstappen bagged pole at the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix over Charles Leclerc, who missed out on the first position in Zandvoort. Verstappen registered a lap of 1m 10.342s in Q3, while Leclerc was just 0.021s off the home favourite in P2. But after the qualifying, the Dutchman made an important request to the fans ahead of the main race on Sunday.
Super Max urged the excited Dutch fans to not throw smoking orange flares on the track. The defending F1 champion addressed how amazing it is to see the flares but everything must have some limits as it is stupid to throw these flares on the track.
"To hold flares, it’s nice but of course, there’s a limit to how much. But to throw it on the track is just stupid," Verstappen said. "Just don’t do that. It’s not good for anyone -- you get thrown out, so you can’t see the race, and for us, the session is stopped because it is dangerous, there’s stuff on the track, so you shouldn’t do it."
He then addressed the morale of the team after a sub-par performance in the first practice session of the GP. He said, “Unbelievable! We had a difficult day yesterday, the whole team worked really hard overnight to turn it around and we recovered well. Again, today we had a quick car and it was enjoyable to drive; a qualifying lap around here feels insane. The atmosphere is amazing here, I hope the fans are having a great time, I really can feel the support and I can hear them all around the track.”