Verstappen laments “crap” qualifying after braking issue

Max Verstappen has labelled his Mexican Grand Prix qualifying display as “crap” after being beaten to pole position by Red Bull Formula 1 teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Verstappen had topped all three practice sessions at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez heading into qualifying and looked well-placed to become F1’s youngest-ever polesitter as he posted the fastest time on the first runs in Q3.

But a brilliant last-ditch attempt from teammate Ricciardo on his final flying lap enabled the Australian to claim his second pole of the season, pipping Verstappen by just 0.026s.

The Dutchman, whose RB14 completely shut down at the end of FP2, complained he had suffered from a rear-braking problem that had affected his Renault-powered car unit throughout qualifying.

“The whole qualifying was crap,” Verstappen said.

“It’s just not good. I was struggling the whole qualifying with the same problems I had in FP2, where I had a lot of rear locking on the downshifting and when I come off throttle.

“Somehow the behavior wasn’t correct. So we couldn’t do anything throughout the qualifying.

“I just had to lock a lot of tools, go forward on the brake balance to try and stabilize the whole car, but it’s not how you want to do qualifying.

“Normally you go more aggressive and be more aggressive on the tools.

“We tried to make the best of it. I thought it was going to be enough with the problems we had but it’s still good to be second.”

Verstappen added he was surprised his first lap in Q3 was good enough for provisional pole because it “didn’t feel good at all”.

“Let’s say that I was surprised that I was first in Q3, because I didn’t feel good at all,” he explained.

“Like I said before, it’s just really difficult with those things. I was driving around the issue, but in qualifying that’s not what you want.”

Asked if he is confident Red Bull can get on top of the issues for the race, Verstappen replied: “I’m not sure but I’ll drive around them.”