Verstappen: A bummer the way the car feels now is not good

Adding insult to injury was the fact that Sergio Perez outqualified his Red Bull teammate Verstappen for the first time this season. He will start directly ahead of the #1 car from P4.

Verstappen struggled all weekend at a venue where Perez won last year and in 2021. The Mexican veteran clearly enjoys Baku City Circuit. But not so, Max it seems.

Verstappen reported after his Qualy session: "After my first run in Q1, I already knew it would be difficult. We had changed a couple of things in the car, and that caused a lot of bouncing in the back of the car when turning in and out of a curve. That was difficult."

"In Q2 it still went relatively well," recalled Max. "But the car did not feel good, and I couldn't get the maximum out of it. I had too much oversteer, and you don't want that on a street circuit."

As for Q3, the triple F1 World Champion said: "In my first run, I made a mistake in the last turn, where the car broke out of the turn. In the run after I had so many problems with bouncing. If you're not totally comfortable, you can't attack.

Verstappen lamented: "I just didn’t feel comfortable attacking because the car was just very difficult, jumping a lot, losing contact patch with the tarmac, so not very nice. Of course, I went off in the last corner, which also didn’t help, so all in all quite disappointing.

"We changed some things and know what the problem is. This is a bummer. The way the car feels now is not good. We'll see," concluded Verstappen, who won seven of the first ten races this season but has not tasted victory since the Spanish Grand Prix in June.

Verstappen leads the 2024 World Championship standings by 62 points over Lando Norris ahead of Round 13 on Sunday in Baku. The McLaren driver messed up his qualifying and will start P17.

Despite starting ahead of Verstappen for the first time this season, Perez expected more: “First of all, I’m a bit disappointed because I felt like P2 on a perfect lap should have been possible. I had a scrappy sector two where I probably missed a tenth, a tenth and a half. It’s probably the same for everyone, though.

“Ferrari were in another league, but I think a further lap would’ve been good. We’ll see tomorrow. We are very different from everyone else, so we’ll see what we are able to do. Come tomorrow and see what we are able to achieve.

“I think definitely on the first stint I should be strong. It will be down to the amount of progress I’m able to make, and then from then on just head down, and hopefully we are able to be as strong in the race. That will be very important," explained Perez, who is P7 in the championship standings.

Red Bull leads the 2024 F1 constructors' championship by eight points over McLaren, whose Oscar Piastri starts the GP from P2, but with Norris down in P17, Verstappen and Perez could combine to increase their championship lead despite the AWOL performance. (Quotes from Agnes Carlier)