Verstappen thought balance problem was “under control” before Q3 · RaceFans

Max Verstappen said he thought Red Bull had got on top of the balance problem with their car in qualifying before slumping to seventh on the grid.

The championship leader came close to matching the quickest time in Q2. However despite having two fresh sets of soft tyres for Q3 Verstappen was unable to get within 0.36 seconds of his time.

“Just Q3 was very bad,” Verstappen told the official F1 channel. “On both of my tyre sets I just picked up a lot of understeer so I couldn’t attack any corners anymore. I had to back it out a lot mid-corner and you lose a lot of lap time with that.”

Verstappen’s 1’19.662 in Q2 was just 0.021s off the best time in that session, set by Hamilton. His 1’20.022 in Q3 meant he was the only driver whose best time in that session was slower than he managed in Q2.

“Somehow in Q2 it wasn’t that bad,” said Verstappen. “I did a point six at that point and we were almost the quickest.

“I mean, we know our limitations, we know our problems, but at that point I think we had it fairly under control. But I went into Q3 and the balance is completely out and I don’t really understand how that happened.”

Following his poor first run in Q3, Red Bull sent Verstappen out immediately behind his team mate Sergio Perez in the hope of giving him the best possible position to set his final lap. However Perez went off at Lesmo 2, and Verstappen passed him before the final corner, meaning he could not use his team mate’s slipstream to reach the finishing line.

Verstappen admitted he is concerned about his car’s race pace as he will start from the fourth row of the grid.

“It’s not ideal for tyres,” he said. “Of course, now we are at the back end of the top group, I would say, so let’s see how that will evolve. Difficult to say how competitive we are going to be in the race compared to the others.”

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