Marko has a gloomy forecast for Verstappen: "Might be impossible"

Is Marko confident in Verstappen this weekend?

Verstappen could only manage fourth place, while McLaren locked out the front row. Meanwhile, Perez failed to reach the final part of qualifying. Marko summarised it by saying "we are too slow".

"We lose too much time in turn four and nine compared to McLaren," Marko said in a conversation with the German branch of Sky Sports.

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were both vocal about the ride quality in both free practice and qualifying. The track has recently been resurfaced, and Marko also believes this is a problem for Red Bull. "The bumpy track doesn't help either. If Max drives too hard over the kerbs, the car starts jumping. With McLaren, it becomes very difficult or even impossible to keep up with them."

Still, Marko is hopeful Red Bull will still be able to score good points across the weekend. This would limit the damage to Norris in the World Championship. "Ferrari seems to be within reach at least in the sprint race, but the gap is very big for these short lap times," said Marko.

This article has been created in collaboration with Nicole Mulder