Max Verstappen planning to party night before Qatar GP as rivals given hope

Max Verstappen sent offer to quit Red Bull and join F1 rival keen to be his team-mate

Max Verstappen has admitted he is planning to party the night before Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix if he clinches the F1 world title on Saturday. The Red Bull genius is 177 points clear at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings and will win his third consecutive title if he secures a top-six position in Saturday’s Sprint race.

Verstappen has been in incredible form once again this season and has won 13 of the 16 Grands Prix. And landing his third title is now nothing less than a formality. But the 26-year-old has offered his rivals hope of at least overcoming him in Sunday’s main event on the Arabian Peninsula after signalling his intentions to enjoy himself on Saturday night.

Verstappen took his place in front of the media in Lusail on Thursday to preview the Qatar Grand Prix. And after being asked if he and Red Bull had any plans to celebrate on Saturday night should he be crowned world champion after the Sprint race, he replied: “Saturday night? It’s hard, but we’ll find a way. Then we’ll see what happens on Sunday. Nothing crazy. There’s still a race that we want to win on Sunday, of course, but we’ll see.”

Verstappen was then quizzed over whether he had ever attended a party the night before a Grand Prix in the past. And he remained tight-lipped on the follow-up question as he told reporters: “Even if I had one, of course, I wouldn’t say so.”

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Verstappen still has six race weekends to wrap-up the title and match the achievements of his girlfriend’s father Nelson Piquet as well as F1 icons Jack Brabham, Sir Jackie Stewart, Ayrton Senna and Niki Lauda. But the blockbuster star insisted he isn’t nervous about the task at hand.

“[I’m] shaking,” he joked. “No, I mean it’s fine. We are having of course an amazing year and we just come into this weekend and we want to win again. I know that if I win or whatever I [need to] achieve on Saturday, then I win the championship. But I think we’re very focused on the main job anyway – just to have a good weekend.”

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And Verstappen doesn’t think Red Bull will struggle for pace in Qatar. “I think we normally should be quick here,” he added. “But again it’s only one practice session. So it’s about making sure that once we hit the ground running, that the car is in a good place, a good window.

“But normally yeah, it should be a nice track for us. We just want to have a good weekend.”

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