Max Verstappen said his Red Bull was “all over the place” in qualifying for Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix after being beaten to pole position by Lewis Hamilton.
The world champion moved to the top of the timesheets after the first moto of Q3 but failed to improve on the critical final effort as Hamilton beat him to the top of the grid by just 0.003 seconds.
Reflecting on why he hadn’t maintained his streak of pole positions dating back to the Monaco Grand Prix, Verstappen blamed a lack of balance throughout qualifying.
“I struggled all weekend to find a good balance,” explained the Dutchman. “Each session had ups and downs.
“Today also in qualifying, it was really difficult in Q1/Q2 to feel confident, to really attack the corners.
“I thought my first run in Q3 was pretty good. But second run again, no feeling.
“I tried to push a bit more, but you lose the rear, or you lose the front. We’re still second, but I think we should be in front with the car we normally have. But so far I think we haven’t gone there.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Red Bull introduced a major upgrade to their RB19 over the weekend which included new sidepods and ground revisions, but Verstappen doesn’t believe that was a factor in what happened on Saturday.
“I think the update is working, but I think we just don’t have everything in place in terms of configuration,” he said.
“I think today we’ve been all over the store and not exactly where we want it to be.”
Although he had to give Hamilton second best in qualifying, Verstappen is more optimistic about his car’s performance in the race.
“It’s going to be quite hot and normally the rear tires are going to be tough, but I think for the race everything settles down a bit more,” he explained.
“I just wish I had a little more fun balance in qualifying to really attack him.”