Verstappen doesn't get it: 'That's very weird'

Max Verstappen was incredibly close to pole position in Saudi Arabia last year, but in 2022 the gap was a lot bigger towards the fastest time. The Red Bull Racing driver set the fourth fastest time and will need to make significant progress on Sunday if he is to take his first victory of the season.

"Personally of course not [satisfied], I don't know why [this happened]," Verstappen sounds somewhat confused at the Viaplay microphone. "The first run in Q3 was really a drama. I just had no grip at all. The second run was just not good enough either. I still had a reference time from Q1, but in certain corners, I couldn't even reach that, so that's very weird. I do think we need to start analyzing some things why that is."

The Dutchman continued his story by saying, "My way of warming up tires in Q3 was obviously different from the other guys, but it wasn't really very good. I just didn't have a good grip." In Turn 16 and Turn 22, according to Verstappen, there was absolutely no balance in the RB18. "I couldn't attack and suffered from understeer in those corners. That's obviously not what you want in qualifying."

Hoping for better balance RB18

One bright spot is that Perez managed to capture the first pole position of his career. Verstappen is happy for his Mexican teammate. "Checo drove a very nice lap, that's positive of course. The car is fast, so I hope we have a good balance in the race tomorrow and can forget about qualifying a bit," he concludes his story.