Max Verstappen off the pace with ‘undriveable’ car in qualifying for Red Bull home race
SPIELBERG Austria AP Max Verstappen felt his Red Bull car was undriveable as he ascertained himself off the pace at his Formula group s home race A lack of grip and an unfortunately timed yellow flag both played a role as Verstappen placed seventh in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring where he s won five times to further dent his hopes of defending the F title A frustrating day for Verstappen and the wider Red Bull gang came amid widespread speculation over his future after Mercedes driver George Russell indicated on Thursday he considered Verstappen was in talks about a move The car is altogether undriveable I have no grip Verstappen stated the club over the radio part way through Saturday qualifying Things got worse later on as he had to back off his final lap of the session because of a yellow flag Speaking to British broadcaster Sky Sports after the session Verstappen indicated he deduced his car was miles off pole set by McLaren s Lando Norris even without the yellow flag Hopefully the coming day we can at least be competitive with Ferrari or Mercedes Verstappen reported I don t know even because with the balance we had in quali that s for sure not going to look great for the next morning but we will analyze everything Verstappen s teammate Yuki Tsunoda was even less competitive as he qualified th and complained he too was lacking grip Norris announced he and McLaren expected Red Bull to be quicker here this weekend after both teams brought upgraded parts to Austria but disclosed he wouldn t write off Verstappen Piastri leads Norris by points in the standings with Verstappen third points further back Max has been our main contender for every race this season Norris reported Just because he s had a slightly worse qualifying nowadays definitely not going to count him out of of the race the following day and definitely not going to count him out for the rest of the season AP auto racing https apnews com hub auto-racing Source
