Max Verstappen says he isn’t surprised after finishing a full second behind Lewis Hamilton in qualifying at the British Grand Prix.
This weekend the Red Bull has appeared a little more controllable compared to Budapest two weeks ago, with the team working to unlock the potential from the RB16.
But in terms of pure speed, the W11 remains in a league of its own, leaving Max to play damage limitation as a result.
“No, I’m not surprised. We are clearly still learning about the car, trying to improve it,” he commented on the gap in the paddock.
“But I think overall, qualifying itself was pretty OK, I was pretty much all the time in third. There was not much more I think I could do.
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“My final lap in Q3 was pretty good. I had a bit of a moment out of the final corner. It’s a big gap, just tried to do the best we can.
“For us, that’s third at the moment, so we did that. It’s a better position than seventh to start the race.”
The gulf in performance between the two teams was in contrast to Friday, when there was little to choose in the extremely high temperatures at Silverstone.
On Saturday, the weather was much cooler, potentially favouring Mercedes, but Verstappen still believes the German manufacturer would have been quickest even had the heat stayed.
“We would still be quite a few tenths down,” he told Autosport.
“I don’t think the warm weather makes such a big difference, if it would have been 35 degrees today, I would still have been third.
“It would have helped maybe a little bit, but not that much.”
Looking ahead to Sunday, the Red Bull driver could be set for a lonely race with the team appearing to be in no-mans-land between Mercedes and the rest.
“Normally not, but we just hope to have a clean start and from there onwards, I just try to do the best I can in the car,” he said on if he could challenge the two in front.
“If we can try to follow them a bit, I think we can be happy with that, and score some points.”
