Max Verstappen says Red Bull endured a “terrible” qualifying in Mexico City on Saturday, as the team was forced to settle for positions on the second row.
After having the upper hand all through the weekend, title rivals Mercedes unveiled strong pace in Q3, with Valtteri Bottas beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton to pole position.
Verstappen ended the session third fastest, with Sergio Perez alongside him in fourth.
Both Verstappen and Perez’s final hot laps were disrupted after AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda pulled off the circuit in an attempt to let them by.
Despite the incident, Verstappen is not convinced that Red Bull had the pace to beat Mercedes.
“Before that [the Tsunoda altercation] we were just struggling to get the tyres to work,” Verstappen said.
“On the Mediums it wasn’t too bad but then on the Softs, going into Q3, it just didn’t click on the first run.
“It just was a terrible lap, just no grip. So I knew there was a lot more in it if we could find a better balance with the tyres and it was a little bit better in the final run and it was definitely on for a good lap and challenge Valtteri’s time.
“I don’t know what happened in front of me, but it must have been Yuki holding up first Checo and then both of them had to go wide. Then, because you arrive so quick it’s difficult to pinpoint what’s happening and I just saw a lot of dust so I thought a car had crashed.
“Now with the yellow flag rules, I’ve been caught here before in Mexico with it, so I backed out of it and then no yellow flag came, so I continued pushing.
“But of course then it’s already like two and a half tenths gone so it was basically finished.”
Having endured difficulties in qualifying, Verstappen is hopeful that Red Bull will have a stronger package in race trim on Sunday.
“I just think we were really slow and had terrible grip in Q3,” Verstappen said when asked if he was surprised by Mercedes’ pace.
“I think my last lap, we recovered it a little bit by getting the tyres into a little bit of a better window, but we were still not what we would have liked and how the car was behaving in all the practice sessions.
“So that was a bit of a mystery. But then tomorrow we maybe race on different tyres anyway so I expect the balance to be good again.”
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