Max Verstappen branded his Australian Grand Prix weekend as “a bit of a struggle” so far despite claiming P2 on the grid in qualifying.
The reigning Formula 1 champion hasn’t looked fully at home in his Red Bull around Albert Park, with car balance problems hampering him throughout practice.
But in typical Max fashion, he managed a lap almost good enough for pole until Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc beat him by almost three-tenths at the end of Q3.
“Not good. I didn’t really feel good in the car the whole weekend so far,” he said in reflection post-session. “I think there has not been one lap where I felt confident, so a bit of a struggle.
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“I just haven’t been able to find a comfortable balance where I could attack all corners in qualifying and of course, that is a big limitation.
“It’s something very new for me in previous years I always felt comfortable even if I had little issues with the car I could extract good laps out of it. Now it has been tough
“Of course, second is still a good result but [I am] just not feeling that great to go to the limit. We will try to analyse it.”
Verstappen and Leclerc look set for another duel on race day, with the Dutchman hoping for greater consistency from his RB18.
“Probably in the race pace everything stabilises a bit, but for me, this weekend so far has been all over the place,” he added. “Of course, I am happy to be second but as a team, we want more.
“I do expect it to be tight. Hopefully, we can have a good battle again.”
Bring on Sunday ? Reaction to #AusGP Quali from Max and Checo ??? pic.twitter.com/wmv9YwxBLN
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) April 9, 2022
As for teammate Sergio Perez, the Mexican was fully in the battle for a second straight pole position, after claiming his first in Saudi two weeks ago.
“It felt good,” said Checo. “In Q1, Q2, things were going good.
“With all the red flags it is hard to keep the momentum going. I regret a bit the decision we took going into Q3 with our strategy on the tyres but I think P3 is a decent start for tomorrow.
“We have got a nice race ahead of us so first of all I hope we make a lot of Aussies very happy because there are full grandstands already on Saturday so hopefully we can give them a nice race.”