Verstappen: Just no pace to be honest, just slow

The four-time Formula 1 champion flirted with the top a few times through qualifying, but when the good got going in SQ3, all his skills could not drag the Red Bull RB20 higher than sixth on a day when his teammate Sergio Perez was knocked out from SQ1, finishing the session early in 16th.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the session, Verstappen said: "Just no pace to be honest, just slow. I just don’t really have the balance to attack entry to mid-corner.

"The car is a bit off, so it makes it really difficult around here. The very high speed is ok but everything else is not ok and that makes it difficult to push.

"I think P6 is more or less where we should be, maybe even P7 actually. But of course that’s not where you want to be. In the Sprint it will be tough to fight the cars around me with just the balance that I have in the car.

"For the other qualifying, let’s see if we can improve the situation a bit, but I don’t expect it to be suddenly turned upside down and work. It’s not been amazing," the Dutchman concluded.

As for Perez, whose struggles with the RB20 continued, he pointed out a mechanical problem as well as an issue with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc on track in a session where traffic played a decisive role.

"Unfortunately, we left a little bit late," the Mexican driver said. "We had an issue with one of the anti-roll bars, and then to get my final lap, we were all opening gaps and then Charles came and we were fighting into Turn 1 and so on, and lost a couple of tenths there – enough to be knocked out.

"It was a shame because I felt like we really progressed with the car from P1 to qualifying, we had a lot more potential and it’s a shame that we just ended up here," Perez concluded.

With this result, Red Bull's F1 constructors' championship chances—though mathematically possible ahead of Qatar—are now more remote.