Pierre Gasly tips Max Verstappen to take the lead in '15 laps' and win 2022 F1 Singapore GP

Pierre Gasly feels that the P8 starting position would not be much of a deterrent for Max Verstappen as he tipped him to win the 2022 F1 Singapore GP. Earlier, Verstappen saw his qualifying get compromised as he did not have enough fuel to complete his final lap.

This means that the Red Bull driver will be starting the race back in P8 while his primary competitors are starting the race up front. Gasly, however, feels that a low starting position would not be a deterrent for Verstappen as he would take around 15 laps to join the lead group.

While talking to the media, Pierre Gasly joked:

"Maybe it's slightly more difficult[to overtake] on this track, so maybe 15 laps until he [Max Verstappen] is in the lead."

Speaking about his own qualifying session, Gasly claimed to be happy with a P7 starting position and hoped to make the most of it. He said:

"It was a lot of fun out there today. It was really tricky in every session with these conditions, sliding around everywhere, but I must say I'm super happy with P7. If you look at how our weekend was going so far, we didn't look so good, but thanks to the rain this evening our day got a lot better. We know how important your starting position is here in Singapore, so being in P7 is really positive, with Lando [Norris] and Fernando [Alonso] just ahead of us, so we'll see what we can do from there."

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We should've seen that way earlier: Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen was adamant that the qualifying mistake should have been pre-empted. The Red Bull driver felt that his second lap, where he had two purple sectors, could have been sufficient for pole, until he was told to abandon it.

Speaking to the media about the strategic error, Max Verstappen said:

"I already felt it was on the lap before as well, but then they told me to abort so I said OK we can do that but then on the final lap they told me to box and then I realised what was going to happen. We ran out of fuel. It is incredibly frustrating and it shouldn't happen. Even when you underfuel it or don't plan to do those six laps then at least you track that throughout the session to know you aren't going to make it. We should've seen that way earlier."

Starting Sunday's race in P8, it will be very interesting to see if Verstappen can make any kind of meaningful progress.