Max Verstappen is a bit discouraged by the conditions in Portugal. The asphalt of the circuit in Portimao is very slippery and that results in little grip. Verstappen himself is quite dissatisfied with the track.

"It's a bit all or nothing this weekend," Verstappen said at the press conference, which also featured Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas."I'm struggling a lot to find the balance. I haven't enjoyed a single lap this weekend. The layout is great, but the track conditions are not good. The grip is not there here. Everyone is suffering from it, but I don't enjoy driving right now."

Verstappen doesn't know

It took some getting used to for the Dutchman in qualifying."I didn't really have the balance. In the end there was a point where I was a bit happier, but it was just compensating and overcompensating. I had a little moment in turn four, in the end it turns out that would have been the fastest lap, but it was a difficult session because of the lack of grip. That corner is full throttle, but the car slipped away from me."

Verstappen was still confident that he would be able to set his sacked lap again, but it turned out not to be the case. Traffic was to blame. "In the last sector I lost a lot of ground because of cars in front of me. It's messy but that's what it is", the eleven times Grand Prix winner said.

Is Vettel driving in the way?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="nl" dir="ltr">Vettel ruined Verstappen&#39;s quali-lap in q3... <a href="https://t.co/xfEBlfmnWS">pic.twitter.com/xfEBlfmnWS</a></p>&mdash; R.Malteser (@RMalteser) <a href="https://twitter.com/RMalteser/status/1388512641556090885?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 1, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>