Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen was the quicker of the two drivers from the Milton Keynes based squad in the two opening qualifying sessions at the Sochi Autodrom on Saturday afternoon, but unfortunately he got out of shape on his last run in the all-important Q3 sessions and dropped a place to the Williams of Felipe Massa.
So, while his teammate lines up in fifth for this afternoon's Russian Grand Prix, the young Dutchman will slot in behind him on the grid in seventh, which obviously leaves the team with a lot to do to try and move up the field.
Max was frustrated by the result and while the aim is to move up during the race, he is under no illusion that fifth is about the best they can be hoping for…
"A frustrating day all things considered, we knew this would be one of our toughest tracks of the season but I had hoped qualifying would go better than that,” he said. “Q1 was not too bad for us but in Q2 I had a really bad feeling with the rear tyres and I suddenly lost grip, especially going into the last sector.”
“Sector 1 and 2 went well on most of my laps but the time just fell away in sector 3 as I just didn't have the heat in the tyres. P5 was our target and that looked possible based on my first sector splits but the time I lost in the final sector cost me that goal.”
“In Bahrain our car had a good setup and worked with the tyres but here the long straights make it very hard to go quick and compete at the front. Tomorrow should be a one stop race and we will of course try to push and go forward but I just think the top four are too quick here. The target will remain P5 in the race tomorrow which would be a good result for us here."
