Max Verstappen is casting doubt on his ability to challenge Mercedes in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver once again found himself in the gap between the all-black Silver Arrows and the rest of the grid in qualifying, seven-tenths off the pole time set by Lewis Hamilton.
For Max, he’ll be hoping the coming ban on special engine modes will allow him to be more competitive on a Saturday from Spa, though for now…
“It seems like I have a subscription for P3,” Verstappen told the media post-session.
“It’s the maximum we can do at the moment, I think overall, the whole weekend we have been P3.
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“I’m pretty happy with that, I just hope of course that we can be a bit closer in the race.
“Yesterday in the long runs they [Mercedes] didn’t seem too bad, but of course tomorrow is a different day again.”
And asked to weigh up his chances in the race, the Dutchman replied: “Difficult to say, at the moment.
“I felt happy in the car. I just hope I can apply a bit of pressure.
“I know it’s very hard to overtake around here but we’re going to do everything we can to be close to them and to make it a bit difficult.”
Verstappen’s best chance to compete against Mercedes will be a repeat of the high tyre wear seen a week ago at Silverstone, but he doubts even that will be enough.
“I think the soft tyre is fine, but let’s just wait and see. Usually, they don’t drive at full speed [during practice],” he told Ziggo Sport.
“I think Lewis always has something left on Sunday. So it felt good on my part, but I don’t know if it’s going to be good enough to really attack them.”
