Red Bull struggles in Monaco qualifying: grip issues stop Max Verstappen after fixing understeer. Red Bull resolved understeer issues in Monaco, but Verstappen lacked grip in Q3.

From being the second-strongest team with a solid margin over their chasers to the third-best with a big gap from the front—qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix turned out to be an even tougher ordeal for Red Bull than they had anticipated coming into the weekend.

Max Verstappen qualified in fifth, meaning he will start from the third row, but what’s worrying is the gap to the pole time—set by Lando Norris with a new track record of 1:09.954.

A gap of 715 thousandths, a full seven-tenths behind McLaren’s number 4, and more than six-tenths adrift of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, which qualified second after an excellent showing. The number 1 RB21 showed promising signs in Q1 and Q2, but faltered in the most critical phase: Q3.

At that stage, Verstappen was hampered by a lack of the expected grip—something Carlos Sainz also noted at the end of Q2. Red Bull’s key advisor, Helmut Marko, gave a rundown of the situation within the team.

“After FP3 we were more optimistic than yesterday, but then reality hit and there was no way to set the time needed to fight for the front row.”

“In the end, we once again lacked grip, and the gap to Norris’ pole time is enormous. The problem is that we didn’t find the grip we were expecting, and it was clear we were never going to be able to match the best times.”

Yesterday, Ferrari seemed the clear favourite for pole and victory this weekend, but today the MCL39s took a step forward and, though challenged by the Reds, secured pole with Lando Norris.

“I misjudged McLaren yesterday,” Marko continued. “Norris did a great job with his flying lap. We’ll see what a two-stop race will mean.”

“We’ll see what pace Lando Norris sets tomorrow, whether he pushes hard or manages things. Both approaches have upsides and downsides. Then there’s always the chance of a Safety Car. Anything can happen here. The only way to shake things up could be to extend the stints.”

While yesterday Max Verstappen was held back by clear understeer, today grip was the issue. The team managed to fix the car’s balance, but the problems came at the worst possible time—and from a different factor: traction.

“We solved the understeer issue, but then came the grip problem. We just couldn’t find it. As I said, after FP3 we were more optimistic. But obviously, we weren’t able to make the same progress others did,” Marko concluded.