Verstappen frustrated: 'I would have preferred to start first'

"It just felt weird," he told FOM afterwards. "The car was quite competitive and had a lot of grip, but in the corners where you had to attack there was little grip at the front. I didn't feel like it was down to the front wing or the set-up. The front tyres just felt really weird and didn't give me the grip I needed."

Verstappen complains about front tyres

He continued: "So we have to go and see what that's like because we tried a few things but it didn't improve my feeling during qualifying, and I continued to suffer from understeer. Still, it's good to be so close at a track where we know Mercedes are strong, so it's nothing very worrying. Of course I would have preferred to start first, but we still have the sprint race and then the main race. That's where we're going to try and catch them back."

The reporter suggests that Red Bull were working on the front of Verstappen's car after the first free practice, and asks if that had any impact on qualifying. "We discovered a small leak, but that was all fixed in time. If we can fix that weird feeling from qualifying I'm confident we can get a good result on Sunday." Where was the problem that Red Bull needs to fix for tomorrow? "It's related to the tyres," concludes Verstappen.