Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen was frustrated after qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday, as the Dutchman was beaten to pole position by rival Lewis Hamilton.
The Dutchman was the hot favourite to claim a sixth consecutive pole position of the season; however, the 25-year-old failed to improve on his final lap in Q3.
Hamilton defeated the Red Bull driver by just 0.003s to secure his first pole position since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, a weekend which saw the duo collide into each other multiple times.
This set up the front row for Sunday’s race beautifully, but the Dutch driver clearly felt like he had a car good enough for pole.
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In his post-qualifying interview, Verstappen admitted that he’d been “struggling the whole weekend” with the balance of his RB19.
The Dutchman complained of having “no feeling” throughout the session, whilst he recognised that Red Bull have a car which shouldn’t be getting beaten to pole.
“I’ve been struggling the whole weekend to find a good balance – every session has been up and down. Today also in qualifying, it was really difficult. Q1, Q2 to feel confident, to really attack corners.
“I thought my first run in Q3 was quite good, but then second run, again no feeling. I tried to push a little more – you lose the rear, lose the front.
“We’re still second, but I think we should be ahead with the car we have normally, but so far this weekend I think we haven’t been on it.
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“I think the update works, but I think we just really didn’t put everything together setup-wise because I just think today everything has just been all over the shop and not exactly where we wanted to be.”
Max Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton off the line and went on to claim Red Bull’s 12th consecutive win.