Verstappen admits his P3 ‘could easily have been P6 or P7’ in Silverstone Sprint Qualifying

Max Verstappen believes that his P3 result in Sprint Qualifying at the British Grand Prix “could easily have been P6 or P7” given the fine margins at play, with the Dutchman conceding that Red Bull still have “a few things to figure out”.

Having ended the weekend’s sole practice hour in P6 earlier on Friday – nearly one second off the pace of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton at the top – Verstappen looked to have closed the gap slightly in Sprint Qualifying later on, ending the session as the closest driver to Hamilton and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli albeit with a deficit of just over three tenths.

Asked afterwards if he was happy to have made the top three – given where he had looked to be in FP1 – Verstappen answered: “I think so, yeah. I mean, for us, the outcome of SQ3 was very close.

“It could easily have been P3 or whatever, P6 or P7. But we were on the good side, so we were a bit closer.

“I think we’re still not where we want to be – cornering, maybe a tiny bit, but also deployment and stuff, so a few things to figure out to try and find more lap time. But yeah, we’ll try to do that, of course, after the Sprint.”

Quizzed on whether the RB22 felt much better during Sprint Qualifying, the four-time World Champion said: “A little bit better, yeah. Still not where I want it to be. I guess it’s also just a combination of how the layout is now with some limitations on the straight, and just getting the balance in the right window.”

Despite being the nearest to Hamilton and Antonelli on the grid for Saturday’s Sprint, Verstappen played down his chances of being able to take the fight to the leading duo, whose respective team mates Charles Leclerc and George Russell will line up in fourth and fifth.

“They look a bit quick,” Verstappen said of the front row. “And I mean, they look quick so normally, team mate related, they should be quick also in race pace if everything calms down a little bit. So for me, I think it will be more of a battle with the guys behind me.”

On the other side of the Red Bull garage, Isack Hadjar wound up in P8 and could not hide his frustration at the outcome of his session.

“I’m eighth, the final guy of the top four [team’s] cars, so it’s a bit disappointing,” the Frenchman explained. “I’m missing out on third because I was just not quick enough on that final lap.

“Max was able to do it, so I really want to look at what went wrong in the lap. I know I didn’t have the best start of it, like launching it, so I know that cost me a bit of time but, yeah.”

When it was put to him that the margins were very fine – with a little over a tenth covering the cars from third to eighth, meaning that he was not dramatically off his team mate – Hadjar conceded: “That’s why it’s a bit more frustrating, because I know if I tidy up one or two things, then we can get there, but I’m happy about my driving today.

“I think I’ve been on it since Lap 1, so that’s good and hopefully tomorrow we find a bit more time.”