Max Verstappen says Mercedes is “on another level” and believes Red Bull’s ambition should be to capture a podium finish at Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix.
Verstappen holds second in the Drivers’ Championship, 47 points behind World Champion Lewis Hamilton, but has struggled for overall speed at Monza.
Verstappen, who crashed in the opening practice session on Friday, qualified only fifth, behind the two Mercedes drivers, as well as McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Racing Point’s Serigo Perez.
“From our side we have not really had a good weekend so far and we seem to struggle to find the perfect balance with low downforce on the car,” he said.
“It becomes more difficult to hold on through the corners and we lack grip, which resulted in P5 today.
“You can say that we are slightly down on power but that is no excuse as there are other things we need to fine tune on a track like this and clearly we are also lacking a bit of pace through the corners.
“I tried everything I could, we tried all the wing levels that are possible to run at Monza but the end lap time was the same.
“In the race normally we are a bit more competitive and I think a podium is still possible tomorrow.
“It won’t be easy to overtake and we are all very close from P3 to P10 but I expect we can still fight for P3 and we won’t talk about Mercedes, they’re on another level.
“Monza is a very special type of track and when we go back to a more normal layout, I expect to see us back in P3 again.”
Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate, Alexander Albon, will start from ninth place.
