Max Verstappen “doesn’t understand” Red Bull’s Q3 struggles | “Not very driveable”

Max Verstappen has no explanations for Red Bull’s poor display in qualifying at the F1 Italian Grand Prix.

Verstappen struggled to seventh on the grid at Monza - his worst qualifying display since the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.

The Dutchman was slower on both of his Q3 laps than he was on used tyres in Q2.

It could be a disastrous day for Verstappen and Red Bull in the championship tomorrow, given McLaren locked out the front row of the grid.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the session, Verstappen said: “It’s very difficult to drive, to find a good balance in it. If you have one issue then you try to fix that then it leads to another issue.

“It’s not very driveable, let's say like that. Q2 was not too bad but somehow in Q3 everything just felt really bad again. I had a lot of understeer on both tyre sets which I can’t explain. It made me lose a lot of lap time.

“You can’t push the corners, you have to v-style it but that doesn’t work. Struggling a lot with that for whatever reason which I don’t understand at the moment.”

Verstappen doubts Red Bull will be able to recover in the race given they simply don’t have a balanced car.

“All the long runs that I did were also not really promising,” he added. “The problem is that our car is just not balanced. When you don’t have a balanced car it’s hard on tyres.

“Everything becomes even more difficult in the race. I think that’s what will happen tomorrow as well.”

Verstappen currently sits 70 points ahead of Lando Norris in the championship standings.

When asked about the state of the championship battle, Verstappen added: “The last few races haven’t been great.

“We have to really try and turn it around, and become more competitive.”