SEPANG, Malaysia -- Max Verstappen says some set-up tweaks ahead of this weekend's race helped him beat teammate Daniel Ricciardo to third on the grid at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver was just 0.156s off Nico Rosberg in second and 0.047s ahead of Ricciardo in fourth. After qualifying behind his teammate in Singapore, Verstappen said it was good to be back on top and so close to the Mercedes.
"Well I think the whole weekend has been very promising, we made some changes after Singapore in the car to make me feel a bit more comfortable and it seems to work," he said. "Of course to be that close to Nico in qualifying is very promising for the race tomorrow."
Verstappen said the team had also made changes to his car's clutch after a poor getaway in Singapore saw him drop down the order at the start and have to fight back to a sixth-place finish.
"I didn't sleep very well after Singapore, I was pushing a lot with the team and of course the team wanted to improve, and like I said I made some changes for myself in the car and then we made some changes to see if the clutch is more stable.
"But already in Singapore on Saturday we knew the clutch was going to be bad and they didn't let us change it, so maybe for the next time they are a bit more easy on it, because we had bad start and it created a crash, hopefully for next time they will be a bit more easier on it."