Max Verstappen endured a frustrating qualifying session at the British Grand Prix, with the four-time Formula 1 World Champion managing only seventh on the grid after struggling throughout the afternoon at Silverstone.
The Red Bull driver never looked fully comfortable during qualifying and, for much of the session, found himself trailing teammate Isack Hadjar. That trend continued into Q3, where Hadjar secured fifth place while Verstappen could do no better than seventh, finishing 0.782s behind pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli and 0.147s slower than his teammate.
According to Verstappen, a combination of an unbalanced car setup and a significant lack of straight-line speed prevented him from extracting the performance needed to challenge at the front.
Max Verstappen blames straight-line speed deficit
“The setup wasn’t good throughout the entire session, and for some reason the car was terribly slow on the straights, even compared to the other cars,” Max Verstappen explained after qualifying.
The Dutchman admitted he was surprised by the scale of the problem and revealed that Red Bull was unable to find a solution during the session.
“We couldn’t solve the issue. Then, when you’re slow on the straights, you have to keep the throttle open for longer, which ends up using more battery energy and creates a negative spiral. The situation gets worse and worse as you reach the end of the lap. It’s like a double blow, which makes it even more painful.”
Verstappen’s frustration had already been evident over team radio immediately after the session, where he simply exclaimed: “What a disaster… unbelievable.”
Little optimism ahead of the British Grand Prix
Given the performance deficit, Max Verstappen admitted he is not expecting an easy race on Sunday.
“First of all, we need to solve these problems. When you’re lacking top speed here, it’s a serious issue. We need to understand exactly what’s happening before tomorrow.”
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