Verstappen rues bumpy surface, Perez blames car balance for tough sprint qualifying

On the back of a mixed result for Red Bull, championship rival Max Verstappen blamed the bumpy surface for failing to challenge for top positions in the short sprint qualifying.

Red Bull looked strong in the only practice session, but they struggled to challenge for top place in the all-important sprint qualifying. Max Verstappen, who will serve a grid drop for exceeding his power unit allocation, ended up fourth on the grid, fractionally beating the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.

The reigning champion rued the bumpy track of the fully-resurfaced Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, claiming that the RB20 was losing a huge amount of performance due to the bumps.

“As soon as we went into Sprint qualifying it looked like we were off. It was a bit difficult with the bumps and I feel like the resurfacing has made it more difficult to drive. It was extremely bumpy which isn’t great for our car as it was jumping around a lot and unfortunately costing us quite a bit of lap time.

“For tomorrow, I don’t think we are the strongest in the race, so will have to see how that goes in the Sprint. Of course the weather might have an impact, but we will have to wait and see. We have a bit more work to do.”

His team-mate Sergio Perez endured another difficult qualifying session, and ended up onl y in 13th on the grid for today’s Sao Paulo F1 Sprint. The Mexican looked strong in the sole practice session, but he struggled with the balance of his RB20 in qualifying.

Despite the balance issues, he could have made it into SQ3, but he and his team made a mistake in the closing stages of SQ2 which saw Perez fail to make it across the line in time for a second flying lap.

“Sprint weekends are always a bit of an unknown, especially here at Interlagos. We had a good SQ1, but in to SQ2 we were struggling with the balance and had a bit of understeer with the track coming down.

“We tried to do something with the brake balance and then ended up too rear limited. It was a bit confusing with the run programme, we thought we might have a chance for a second lap at the end, but we didn’t and that ended our day a bit early.

“We got caught out with the conditions on track today, but we’re looking forward to improving for tomorrow’s qualifying and Sprint race.”