The 2021 F1 world champion was second and fourth respectively in the first two segments of qualifying, and felt that the performance in his car on used soft tyres was promising ahead of the final top-10 shootout for pole.
But Verstappen was only able to put together a time good enough for fourth overall, having initially dropped to eighth following the initial flurry of runs.
Explaining that he had put the tyres through the same preparation throughout Q3, in which the Dutchman opted to take two build laps before going for a qualifying time, Verstappen was bemused why he was unable to extract the same performance under characteristically more ideal conditions as the circuit cooled.
“Q1 and Q2 was very good,” Verstappen explained. “Even my last [lap] after the long red flag, I went out on that old set and it was looking really good. And so I was very comfortable going into Q3.
“But then I put that first tyre set on and I had no grip, it felt like I was driving on a different tyre.
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