Verstappen: "We are just off the pace"

Max Verstappen admitted that Red Bull were just lacking a bit of pace as Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole position for the first ever Qatar Grand Prix.

"FP2 was difficult for us and qualifying was therefore a bit of a question mark but yeah we were just lacking all through qualifying you know," Verstappen told Sky Sports F1.

"It was never really moment of course when I thought it was on but then on my last lap I thought it was pretty decent and then yeah we're just lacking pace. You can clearly see the last two weekends Checo has been on it and he was struggling as well, he didn't even make it to Q3 so it just shows that this weekend for whatever reason, we are just off the pace. But nevertheless, I mean I'm still second, with of course a big gap but it is the best I could do."

More straightline speed

Earlier Toto Wolff said Red Bull may have found some straightline speed but the World Championship leader played this down and said that maybe the Mercedes got slower.

"I think they lost speed," joked Verstappen when asked if the Red Bull had found some straightline speed.

"I don't know to be honest, I think in general it's been okay but it's on the inside probably a bit more sandy but to be honest I don't really think about it too much even you know Brazil I thought first would have been really good, it wasn't actually amazing and second was quite good, I know he has more sand but you know at the end of the day you can't change it so you shouldn't think about it too much."

"It's difficult to really think about it now, you just have to see what happens at the actual start and go from there, but you know with a big lap like this in qualifying of course in the race they are going to be super quick as well not everything is won at the start as we know."