Verstappen explains how he worked to get promising P3 in Spanish GP Qualifying

The four-time world champion this time couldn’t work his usual magic to spoil the party for the two McLarens. Oscar Piastri secured an exceptional pole position, putting two tenths between himself and teammate Lando Norris, who has once again been beaten in qualifying this season.

However, despite the three-tenths gap to the MCL39, the Dutchman can still be optimistic heading into tomorrow’s race, thanks to the strong race pace he showed during FP2.

Interviewed immediately after qualifying, Verstappen summed up his session as follows: ''I think we were lacking all weekend, of course, compared to them (McLaren), but, I think we executed well, and I think, yeah, that, that third position is, I think where we more or less should be, even though I think it's quite close behind as well.

Speaking about the work done to find the right balance, Verstappen added: ''Not not too much. think we had a quite, quite a decent Friday actually, and we just made some some final changes to to the car, but yeah, of course, unfortunately it wasn't enough to really challenge for for the for the pole, but, yeah, it's okay''.

He then concluded: ''Yeah, I'll try my best, but they will be tough to beat, but we'll, yeah, see what we can do tomorrow''.