‘No point in racing’, says frustrated Verstappen after British GP qualifying

SILVERSTONE: Max Verstappen vented his frustrations after being out-paced by his Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar in Saturday’s qualifying for the British Grand Prix while George Russell and Lando Norris were both baffled by their lack of pace.

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli took pole ahead of the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, with his Mercedes teammate Russell back in fourth.

Four-time world champion Verstappen, who qualified two places behind Hadjar in seventh, complained about his car’s lack of power and outright speed and questioned whether there was any point in taking part in Sunday’s race.

“It’s just not going forward,” said the Dutchman.

“It’s just not pulling the same as it was. On a track like this, where that is key, you want as much power as you can so it’s extra painful.

“I’ve tried a lot of things in qualifying, but it was just always the same.

“So, there is a clear problem with the engine that we can’t find and that worries me for tomorrow because there is actually no point to race like this.”

He added that on Friday he was slow on the straights.

“Just down on power on my side of the garage, from the first lap, and no improvement,” he added.

“I lose a lot on the straights, plus the car had a bad balance so it was just very poor.

“We were getting destroyed too in the high-speed corners in the sprint race. There’s a clear disconnect with the car.”

The 28-year-old, who had his first podium of the season when he finished second in the last race in Austria, has been unhappy with his car for much of this year following Formula One’s move into a new ‘hybrid era’ with cars powered equally by battery and engine.

He is without a win since last year’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when friend and rival Lando Norris of McLaren claimed the drivers’ title.

‘No excuses’

Norris, who will start sixth, also confessed to disappointment with his performance after taking third spot in the sprint which took place earlier on Saturday.

“There are no excuses for now. This is quite poor from our side,” he said.

“A track like this is to do with the efficiency of a car. It’s just understanding the car and its dynamics, but two teams understand it better than everyone else and that’s why they are ahead.

“I think we can’t just develop the car, we have to catch up. It’s a mixture of a lot of things that will take time, but time is not on our side.”

Russell was even more baffled by his lack of straight-line speed and the cause of his Q1 crash after qualifying fourth.

“We’ve been struggling with straight-line speed and we don’t know why,” said the 28-year-old Briton.

“Compared to all the other Mercedes (powered cars), we are losing.

“I don’t really know why that is. The team are working super hard to try and understand. We thought we found the problem this morning, but it wasn’t the issue so it’s not making things easier. We will just keep working.”

He said he had no idea what led to him crashing in Q1 at Luffield.

“I have raced here for 12 years and I have never locked up once in that corner before,” he said.

“So, I just don’t know. We made some changes to the set-up, but it was probably more extreme than we thought.

“I don’t know what happened. It was weird.”