Verstappen unhappy with his RB20: 'There just no pace'

Verstappen created a 63-point lead between himself and Lando Norris in the 'Sin City', giving him an insurmountable lead with two more races remaining. But in Qatar, it was Norris who had the pace in Qatar, taking pole for tomorrow's sprint race, while Verstappen and Red Bull Racing were left confused as to why they had such an inferior pace.

However, while the Dutchman qualified in P6, Sergio Perez, his teammate, will have to start from 16th place in Qatar. The Mexican blamed this SQ1 exit on bad timing that put him into a fight with Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen made the most of the Red Bull

After qualifying, Verstappen too was not satisfied with how his session had gone. "Yeah, it's just no pace, to be honest. Just slow. I just don't really have the balance to attack entry to mid-corner. The car is just a bit off, so it makes it really difficult around here," the Dutchman told F1TV.

"The very high speed is ok, but everything else is not ok, and that makes it just difficult to push. I think P6 is more or less where we should be, maybe even P7, actually. But yeah, it's, of course, not where you want to be."

For the sprint race and qualifying for the Grand Prix, Verstappen does not expect much else: "I don't know. I mean, the sprint, probably it will be tough to fight the cars around me with just the balance that I have in the car. "

"For the other qualifying, let's see if we can improve the situation a bit. But I don't expect it to suddenly be turned upside down and that it works. I don't know. It's not been amazing, let’s say it like that," concluded Verstappen.

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy

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