Red Bull’s Max Verstappen admitted the outfit was simply “not fast enough” after he qualified in fourth position for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Red Bull, having claimed two wins from the last four races, both courtesy of Verstappen, was in the mix with Ferrari during Friday practice, but drifted away on Saturday morning.
Neither Verstappen nor Daniel Ricciardo were able to challenge for pole position, with Verstappen fourth fastest, six-tenths behind pole sitter Valtteri Bottas, while Ricciardo took fifth.
“I think we maximised the result in qualifying today but we were just not fast enough,” said Verstappen.
“In general the pace has been simply not quite good enough across the whole weekend.
“I think both Daniel and I have been chasing the car balance and we could never find the full grip and potential.
“In qualifying the grip was a little bit better; we lose a lot of time on the straights here but I think there are also one or two tenths we could have found.
“I never expected to beat Ferrari and Mercedes on this track as it’s just not strong for us, but I did expect to be a little closer.
“For sure I would love some rain in the race, but I don’t think it looks like that’s going to happen. Maybe I will do some praying tonight!
“We may need a bit of luck to be honest, but you never know what can happen up front and it can still be an exciting race.”
Ricciardo, meanwhile, will drop to 15th position on the grid as a consequence of his 10-place penalty for taking on a new MGU-H.
“A kind of a mysterious Saturday really,” said Ricciardo.
“Normally, in past years, Fridays were never good for us and we then improved in qualifying.
“Lately Fridays have been pretty comfortable but then on Saturday we often lose out.
“I think we were better on the Soft tyre in qualifying today but I’m sure something was up with the last set of Supersofts I had in Q3 as I had vibrations as soon as I left the pits.
“That was a bit frustrating because I didn’t really feel I could work with too much out there.”
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