Verstappen expecting a challenging race

Max Verstappen didn't succeed in securing a position in the top 8 shoot-out as he did in Melbourne this afternoon in Bahrain, but P10 on tomorrow's grid hasn't eroded the Toro Rosso driver's hope of achieving a good result.

"Starting P10 isn't too bad," said the junior bull. "You always want to go more to the front, but we have to be realistic, this track is just not the best for our car and the whole package.

"In the end we're quite close to Q3 so we can be happy. Especially now with this starting position we can choose our tyres, so it's not so bad."

While Verstappen acknowledged some benefits associated with a 9th or 10th place spot on the grid with regard to saving and choosing tyres, he was adamant that such a strategy was difficult to voluntarily plan.

"It's very difficult to plan out because it's so tricky in Q2. You always want to be P9 or P10 but today we just got lucky."

While Toro Rosso's performance level is directed towards the race rather than towards qualifying, Verstappen is unsure his STR11's pace will enable him to challenge the cars ahead.

"We focus in general a bit more on the race in terms of tyres because we don't have that many SuperSoft tyres compared to others, so we have to wait and see.

"I'm looking forward to it bit it'll be a very hard race for everyone."

REPORT: Hamilton pips Rosberg to Bahrain pole by 0.077s

AS IT HAPPENED: Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying

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