Max Verstappen found second on the grid hard to take after leading every session until Q3 at the Turkish Grand Prix.
The Dutchman was simply on a different planet as he found himself seconds clear of the field at times in the wet conditions at Istanbul Park.
After his first lap in Q3, Verstappen was four seconds faster than anyone else, that was until Racing Point switched to intermediate tyres and Lance Stroll claimed pole by three-tenths of a second.
“I’m just upset because the whole weekend we are first, we look very comfortable, and then we lose out in Q3,” said a clear disheartened Max to Mark Webber in Parc Ferme.
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After seeing Serio Perez initially go fastest on the intermediates, Verstappen abandoned what would have been a much faster second lap on the full wets to put on the shallower-grooved tyre.
However, whereas the Mexican and indeed Stroll fired the tyre right up, the Red Bull driver couldn't until his final run when he claimed second.
“I was going faster but I had no grip compared to the balance I had before,” Verstappen explained. “Probably it was the right tyre to be on but it was not good like that.
“We should have been doing better switching to that tyre compared to what we were doing before. We were constantly in first compared to everyone else on the extreme tyre. So we definitely missed something there.”
Perhaps the only silver lining was the poor pace of Mercedes, who had Lewis Hamilton sixth and Valtteri Bottas ninth as their 100% pole record in 2020 came to a screeching halt.
“At the end of the day I don’t care where the Mercedes is,” Max said. “I just look at our performance and that’s not just good in Q3. That’s why I’m so upset.
“You can’t look at other people’s performance to judge your performance you have to look at yourself and clearly in Q3 it was not good.”
