Verstappen 'got slower' as qualifying went on

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Max Verstappen was feeling bemused over exactly why his qualifying pace got slower as Saturday's session went on.

The Red Bull driver had finished Q1 in fifth place, but then dropped to sixth in the second round. And in in the pole shoot-out he went backwards again ,and will start Sunday's Russian Grand Prix from seventh on the grid.

"It was actually very poor from after Q2," Verstappen admitted afterwards, adding that it had been a frustrating day for him all round.

"I was already complaining in Q2 the last sector was just losing a lot of grip under braking into turn 13," he explained. "I had a really bad feeling with the rear tyres, losing the rear basically

"Then you overheat the tyres too much and everything just gets worse and worse," he continued. "Sector 1 and 2 went well on most of my laps but the time just fell away in sector 3.

"With the two sets in Q3 it just got worse and worse again.

"Normally with less fuel in the car in Q3 you should do better. But I went slower, so that is not the way to go. That results in seventh spot on the grid.

Vettel and Raikkonen lock out Sochi front row

"We knew this would be one of our toughest tracks of the season but I had hoped qualifying would go better than that," he continued.

"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.

"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.”

Verstappen will start one row behind his team mate Daniel Ricciardo and Williams' Felipe Massa. The trio all live in the same Monaco apartment building, leading Ricciardo to suggest the idea of an 'intra-building' battle tomorrow.

"I've got the party rights, so they can join me," Verstappen said in response. "If I'm in front!"

GALLERY: All the pictures from Saturday in Sochi

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.