Max Verstappen admits McLaren are out of reach in qualifying, while Yuki Tsunoda struggles with grip and faces a tough Sunday.
Verstappen had to concede the front row to the McLaren F1 drivers, placing his Red Bull third on the grid. The four-time world champion admits he didn’t have as much pace as expected and that Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were out of reach in qualifying.
“We’ve been lacking [performance] against them all weekend; I think third place is where we belong, and there are fast cars behind us. It’s hot, and we managed to extract the maximum from the car — we’ll see tomorrow,” Verstappen said.
Verstappen Sees No Pole
The Dutchman doesn’t believe he could have done much better: “Not much. We had a good Friday, made a few last changes to the car, but it wasn’t enough to fight for pole — but that’s okay.”
Verstappen doesn’t expect to beat the McLarens, who also have a strategic advantage with two cars against one, but he’s not giving up: “I’ll do my best. They’ll be tough to beat, but we’ll try.”
Tsunoda Struggles With Pace
Yuki Tsunoda will start dead last tomorrow after again conceding nearly six tenths to Verstappen in Q1. As has been the case since the start of the weekend, the Japanese driver has reported unresolved issues with his car.
“It’s been pretty tough. Throughout the weekend I’ve tried to fix the issues as much as possible. From FP1 I was mentioning a problem and had no grip. We tried everything to fix it, but it didn’t work,” Tsunoda explained.
“Whatever we did — the setup changes — it was just a band-aid. It didn’t give me any pace, and it’s a shame. It’s not like I made mistakes. Even if we had used three sets of tyres, without pace it would have been tough.”
Tsunoda Faces Hopeless Sunday
The Japanese driver has no hope for the race, as he believes the long-run pace will be just as poor as it was in Friday’s free practice: “It’s the same with long-run pace — it was really bad in FP2.”
“It’s the same feeling. So far, what I’m feeling is the car just eats up the tyres. Whatever I do, there’s degradation. I hope the setup changes have improved that, but I don’t have much hope.”
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