Max Verstappen off the pace with ‘undriveable’ car in qualifying for Red Bull home race
SPIELBERG Austria AP Max Verstappen felt his Red Bull car was undriveable as he determined himself off the pace at his Formula association s home race A lack of grip and an unfortunately timed yellow flag both played a role as Verstappen placed seventh in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring where he s won five times to further dent his hopes of defending the F title A frustrating day for Verstappen and the wider Red Bull association came amid widespread speculation over his future after Mercedes driver George Russell indicated on Thursday he assumed Verstappen was in talks about a move The car is thoroughly undriveable I have no grip Verstappen notified the unit over the radio part way through Saturday qualifying Things got worse later on as he had to back off his final lap of the session because of a yellow flag Speaking to British broadcaster Sky Sports after the session Verstappen indicated he supposed his car was miles off pole set by McLaren s Lando Norris even without the yellow flag Hopefully the next day we can at least be competitive with Ferrari or Mercedes Verstappen declared I don t know even because with the balance we had in quali that s for sure not going to look great for the following day but we will analyze everything Verstappen s teammate Yuki Tsunoda was even less competitive as he qualified th and complained he too was lacking grip Norris noted he and McLaren expected Red Bull to be quicker here this weekend after both teams brought upgraded parts to Austria but announced he wouldn t write off Verstappen Piastri leads Norris by points in the standings with Verstappen third points further back Max has been our main contender for every race this season Norris explained Just because he s had a slightly worse qualifying in the current era definitely not going to count him out of of the race on the morrow and definitely not going to count him out for the rest of the season AP auto racing https apnews com hub auto-racing Source
