Verstappen suspects technical issue after difficult Silverstone qualifying

Max Verstappen believes Red Bull may have been hampered by a technical issue after enduring a frustrating qualifying session for the British Grand Prix, with the reigning World Champion left struggling for both balance and straight-line speed.

It was a challenging Saturday for Red Bull at Silverstone. Verstappen finished sixth in the Sprint after losing ground to both McLaren drivers at the start before later being overtaken by George Russell in an intense battle. The Dutchman was unable to recover further and crossed the line outside the top five.

Qualifying offered little improvement. Despite setup changes made after the Sprint, Verstappen could manage only seventh on the grid with a best lap of 1:28.893, while teammate Isack Hadjar impressed by claiming fifth, his strongest qualifying result since Monaco.

Speaking after the session, Verstappen admitted nothing felt quite right with the RB21 throughout the day.

"It wasn’t a good Qualifying for me, everything seemed a little bit off. In the Sprint, we struggled for top speed, and going into Qualifying we made some decent changes, but the whole session we were slow on the straight and had issues with balance."»

The four-time World Champion suggested Red Bull had been unable to identify a setup solution and believes a technical problem may have been affecting the car.

"We haven’t found anything that makes a difference, so we’re pretty sure there’s a problem there. It’s difficult to make sense of all the things we’ve struggled with today, and there’s a lot to understand, so let’s see how things go tomorrow."»