Red Bull apologise to Max Verstappen for F1 sprint qualifying “disaster”
Red Bull apologised to Max Verstappen after a torrid sprint qualifying in China.
Max Verstappen branded his Friday at Formula 1's Chinese Grand Prix as a “disaster” after qualifying well off the pace for the sprint race.
Four-time world champion Verstappen could only qualify eighth-fastest in sprint qualifying as he ended up 1.7 seconds adrift of George Russell, who headed a dominant Mercedes one-two.
To rub further salt into the wounds, Verstappen was out-paced by the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, as well as both Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren drivers.
“The whole day has been a disaster, pace-wise,” the Dutchman bemoaned.
“No grip. Honestly, I think that’s the biggest problem – no grip, no balance, just losing massive amounts of time in the corners, to be honest.
“Then, of course, because of that, you start to trigger other little problems. But the big problem for us is just the cornering is completely out.”
Red Bull narrowly avoids early bath
Red Bull had already survived a scare when Verstappen and Isack Hadjar were only ninth and 10th fastest in SQ2.
Asked if there was anything he could do to improve things for main qualifying and Sunday’s grand prix, Verstappen replied: “We’ll have a look. I don’t know at the moment what we can do. We’ll see.”
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies was heard apologising to Verstappen over team radio at the end of SQ3.
“Sorry, Max,” Mekies said. "Tough one, a lot to learn. The weekend is still long, we need to learn from [Sprint Qualy]. Let's try again.”
Hadjar, who narrowly scraped into SQ3 by just 0.015s ahead of Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg, went on to take 10th.
The 21-year-old Frenchman finished nearly half a second adrift of Verstappen and was beaten by Ollie Bearman’s Haas.
“I don’t know what happened yet and why we lost half a second,” Hadjar lamented.
“I was happy with my lap, it was good, but in the end I don’t think that is going to change our weekend. I’m just be happy to be not too far from Max.”
Hadjar, who was promoted to Red Bull for 2026, added: “We need a bit more of everything.
“More grip, a bit more power. That’s it. We’re just very far from Mercedes, a lot more than we were last weekend.
“I was expecting McLaren and Ferrari to be ahead, but I didn’t expect the gap overall to increase.”
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