Max Verstappen blamed a “double whammy” of balance and top-speed problems for an “extra painful” British Grand Prix Qualifying session, sliding to P7 after an engine issue in Q2 and persistent slowness on the straight. While teammate Isack Hadjar was faster in
Max Verstappen stepped out of his car after British Grand Prix Qualifying with the kind of frustration that doesn’t need explaining. He already knew the session had hurt—then he spelled out why.
In the Sprint, he fought hard before falling back to P6. Qualifying began with promise: Verstappen finished Q1 in third place. His teammate, Isack Hadjar, went fastest in the same phase.
But as the session moved deeper, the problems tightened around the car. Verstappen said the engine “not responding as normal” in Q2. That shift in performance changed everything. By the time Q3 concluded, he wound up in seventh, behind Hadjar in fifth.
When asked to look back on what went wrong, Verstappen didn’t point to a single moment. He described the damage as a compounding effect. “[There were] two things. The whole session. like of course not a good balance. but at the same time terribly slow on the straight for whatever reason. even compared to the other car.”.
He said the team couldn’t correct it quickly enough. “We couldn’t fix it from the first run until the end. I mean. when you’re slow on the straight here. you’re more full-throttle. you burn more battery… so it’s just like a spiral and it gets worse and worse throughout to the end of the lap. It’s like a double whammy, so it’s extra painful.”.
The pain wasn’t just about where he finished—he also linked it to what he’ll need to survive Sunday. Asked whether battling the McLarens could be the best-case scenario in the race. and whether Mercedes and Ferrari were out of reach. Verstappen kept the focus on fixing Red Bull’s own weaknesses first.
“We first have to fix our own problems. When you’re already just lacking top speed, that’s a major problem around here so that’s something that we need to understand also for tomorrow.”
On the other side of the garage, Hadjar sounded steadier with what he felt through the car—yet even his satisfaction came with a clear warning label: the pace gap is real, and it’s not shrinking by itself.
“I think yesterday I was fairly happy with the car – I just made a step I think, day two, made a step driving-wise, and very little mistakes,” the Frenchman said. “So I think that was good, but still it hits hard when you’re six tenths behind pole after a very good lap.”
He added that the car itself felt capable, which makes the situation harder to explain—and harder to accept. “And the thing is, I feel like the car is pretty good, so it’s hard to, at the moment, see how we can do to fight ahead.”
Hadjar pointed to what the Sprint had already suggested about race pace. “I think you saw today’s Sprint race was kind of clear. the rankings in terms of race pace – like Mercedes. Ferrari and then McLaren. and then us. And I think if we can bring the fight to McLaren, that’s already a very good job.”.
Taken together, the Qualifying results read like two different windows into the same problem. Verstappen described the session as getting worse through the lap because of the combination of imbalance and straight-line slowness. while Hadjar framed the weekend’s bigger issue as a measurable gap—one Red Bull can’t afford to keep treating as background noise.
With Verstappen heading into Sunday after “an extra painful” Qualifying and Hadjar acknowledging the team is still behind the front pack. the British Grand Prix becomes less about chasing headlines and more about chasing top speed. balance. and answers—before the race pace hierarchy hardens any further.
Verstappen British Grand Prix Qualifying double whammy Red Bull Hadjar RB22 engine issue top speed Q1 Q2 Q3 Sprint