Verstappen blames “weird feeling” for loss to Hamilton in F1 Britain qualifying

Verstappen missed out on the fastest time in qualifying by just under a tenth of a second with Hamilton set to start from first in tomorrow’s sprint race.

The Dutchman vented his frustration over team radio about the handling of his Red Bull, saying after his first run in Q3: “Ah f---, I had no front tyres to even finish the lap - seriously, I just don't get what's going on. The car is good but she's understeering to the moon.”

Verstappen will look to secure his first pole position at Silverstone in tomorrow’s sprint qualifying race from second on the grid.

Reflecting on qualifying, he said: “No we just need to look at ourselves because the car itself was actually handling quite well but just a lot of understeer so I couldn’t really attack any corners, just waiting for the front to grip up and a bit of a weird feeling to be honest to drive, because I don't think it was setup or front wing related.

“It is what it is. We’re still quite close, it's alright.”

The current championship leader remains confident that he can take the win on Sunday should Red Bull fix this handling issue overnight.

“Yeah, it's a bit of a weird feeling to be honest,” Verstappen added. “You do qualifying, you go flat-out and actually it doesn’t really mean anything in terms of pole position feeling, so we'll see tomorrow.

“I think we have a strong race car, we just need to fix a bit the issues we had in qualifying, but I’m quite confident that we can have a strong race.”

Describing the specifics of the issue, he explained: “I know, but for me it’s tyre-related, so we’ll have a look.”