Red Bull in trouble after Verstappen's Baku pole position

Off the back of Max Verstappen's pole position in Azerbaijan, Marko spoke to Sky Sports Germany, sharing his thoughts on the Saturday afternoon qualifying session.

"There have been so many interruptions, yellow flags, red flags," Marko said. "Then raindrops, no raindrops... it was very much at the limit, nervously."

Verstappen proved key for Red Bull Racing clinching pole position in the Baku Street Circuit. Using soft tyre compounds, instead of mediums was the Dutchman's idea, going against the team's decision.

Despite nabbing pole position for the race, Red Bull faces challenges in terms of strategy come tomorrow's race.

"Our tyre strategy for the race has now been mixed up a bit because we had to use more tyres than planned," Marko said, emphasising that it had been the myriad of stoppages to the session which had forced Red Bull to use more tyres than it had expected.

For the Austrian, however, there's still a shot at the win. "We already saw yesterday that we can be at the front in the long run. And from the start to the first corner it's relatively short here - there's no danger of losing the place immediately."

With Verstappen's most recent win in Italy the question of whether Red Bull Racing were back in the fray at the top or not, was a highly discussed subject on the run-up to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend.

For McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, Verstappen's pole in Baku marks the return of Red Bull Racing to the top in F1, and signals Verstappen as a "serious contender" for the Drivers' Championship, where he trails Oscar Piastri, the championship leader, by 94 points.