Horner hoped for more than P6 for Verstappen during sprint qualifying

A surprised Christian Horner said that Red Bull "thought the circuit would suit the car better" at the Qatar Grand Prix as Max Verstappen had a disappointing qualifying session. The Dutchman was only able to take P6 in sprint qualifying for the race tomorrow, a result that the British team boss could not understand.

"To be honest, we thought the circuit would suit the car a little better. I think the problem is that the temperature is so cool. We just seem to be struggling a bit with the tyre here. The majority of the time loss is turn one, turn two and the last corner. We need to look at that and understand what is causing that," Horner explained to Viaplay.

Lando Norris, Verstappen's only rival in the world championship until last weekend in Las Vegas, put his McLaren in pole position, meaning he will start the sprint race from the most favourable starting spot. George Russell completes the first starting row of the sprint race in Qatar, while Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez had a disastrous qualifying yet again, only quick enough for P16.

However, when Horner was asked about the strong points at this particular circuit, the Brit did have a positive response: "We are quick on the straights, so maybe we can overtake on that. It is a race that I think will have low tyre degradation in the sprint. But let's see, and then we'll take the data from that and try and apply it for qualifying later in the evening."

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