Verstappen: It Could Have been Better

Minardi driver Jos Verstappen claimed he could have lapped more than half a second faster had he not made a mistake during his flying lap in first qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

"That wasn't the perfect qualifying lap, as I made a mistake in the first corner that cost perhaps 0.6 secs â€" if not for that, I think a lap time of 1 min 25.3 secs or 1 min 25.4 secs was possible, which would have been good," said Verstappen.

"As it worked out, that 0.6 secs wouldn't have gained us a position today, but it's just a shame for both the team and me that we didn't get the best lap possible. Anyway, we know there is more in the car, but with a heavier fuel load tomorrow, we'll just have to see what happens."

Minardi teammate Nicolas Kiesa, who made his Grand Prix debut in Germany only three weeks ago, had an eventful day, his car suffering an engine problem in the morning which forced the Dane to use the spare machine for his qualifying run.

Kiesa finished down in 19th position.

"All told, it has not been a great day," said Kiesa. "We had a major engine problem this morning, which meant I lost the whole of the practice session while the engine was changed. I then had to use the spare car for qualifying, and it felt quite different from the race car.

"That, plus the fact the circuit had changed a lot between this morning and this afternoon, meant we just didn't get the best out of the car today. Still, we'll aim for a better outcome tomorrow."