'Whole qualifying was crap', says disappointed Verstappen

Max Verstappen went into qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix as the red hot favourite to take pole position, after dominating the earlier practice sessions.

If he'd managed it then he would have taken the record for the youngest ever pole sitter in Formula 1 history. But in the end he was denied the accolade - by his own team mate Daniel Ricciardo who was 0.026s faster at the end of Q3.

Even though it gave Red Bull its first front-row lock-out since 2013, it was clear that Verstappen was deeply unhappy by the outcome. He looked like a man whose biggest dreams had been dashed right before his eyes.

“The whole qualifying was crap,” Verstappen said, in his typically blunt fashion after the end of the session.

"It was just not good," he continued. "I was struggling the whole qualifying with the same problems I had in FP2. I had a lot of rear locking on the downshifting and when I come off-throttle.

• Stunning Ricciardo denies Verstappen in Red Bull lock-out

"The behaviour was not correct," he added. "Engine braking not how I want to, rear-locking the car.

"We couldn't do anything in qualifying so I had to go forward on the brake balance to try to stabilise the whole car.

"It's not how you want to do qualifying," he acknowledged. "Normally you go more aggressive with all the tools."

“We tried to make the best of it and I thought it was going to be enough with the problems we had," he said. "But it’s still good to be second."

Asked if the same problems were likely to affect his race on Sunday, Verstappen said: "I’ll drive around them."

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was busy celebrating the successful 1-2 front row lock-out and didn't seem to mind which of his drivers had come out on top.

“Max had the same car and same opportunity, Daniel did the better job in Q3 and deserves the pole,” he said.

"This kind of result really just injects yet more impetus into [the team]," he said. "We know we've got a great team, we know we've got a great car, we've got great drivers.

"Even with Daniel leaving next year, we've got [Pierre] Gasly coming in who is growing and growing. If we can just get that bit more horsepower to get us closer to the bracket of Mercedes and Ferrari we can give them a tough time like we did today."

Verstappen could still break Sebastian Vettel's record for the youngest ever pole sitter if he tops qualifying in the final two races of the season. But Horner admitted that Mexico had been the 21-year-old's best chance and that breaking the record was now unlikely.

"In reality it was the last sensible opportunity for him to claim that youngest ever pole position winner," he told Motorsport.com. "It's the last thing missing from his record.

"He'll reflect on it tonight," Horner added. "But I'm sure he'll race well tomorrow, and it's important that we convert these grid positions into good points.

"The drivers have delivered their bit, the team has done a great job today, so we've just got to covert it into a big result tomorrow.

"That Ferrari and Mercedes on the drag race down to turn 1 ... [Vettel] is so strong in a straight line, and the same with Lewis, they've got to be more focussed on what those guys are doing than too focussed on themselves.

"They both really want it, and that's the danger. But they're both part of the team and they need to keep that in mind which we'll talk about tomorrow.

"We'll discuss all these things in the briefing that will take place in the morning," he added. "They've got to keep it clean.

"The race isn't going to be won at the first corner. It's all about looking after these tyres, they're fragile as hell as we can see. It's going to be a question of making sure we have a strategy that can stay ahead of Ferrari and Mercedes."

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