Max Verstappen says a turbo issue cost him the near two-tenths deficit he had to pole during qualifying at the British Grand Prix.

Red Bull is enjoying a much-improved performance at Silverstone, with the Dutchman's time 1.4s faster than he managed in the same session 12 months ago.

For Max, his fourth place also signalled a recovery this weekend, having struggled to match teammate Pierre Gasly through practice.

"In a way I’m very happy because before qualifying I was really not happy," he explained to reporters.

“The whole weekend I was struggling for balance and around here, in all those fast corners, when you don’t have the balance you just lose lap time. So we improved that in qualifying and the car was great."

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It was then that Verstappen revealed his Honda engine had been an obstacle, costing him crucial time in key areas.

“I think we had a really good set-up but we had turbo lag the whole day so all the time in the low-speed corners the engine was not responding," he explained.

“So when you look at the lap time and you’re that close to pole, it’s a bit bittersweet I would say as those issues definitely cost me one and a half or two-tenths so I could have fought for pole.”