Hungarian GP: Max Verstappen opens up on power issue leaving him P10 for race

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen revealed a lack of power from his car meant he could not qualify any higher than P10 for tomorrow’s Hungarian GP.

The final race before the summer break takes place tomorrow afternoon, but it’ll certainly be a tough one for Red Bull to try and achieve a really big result, given Max is in P10 and Sergio Perez is in P11.

Indeed, it was an uncharacteristically weak session from the Bulls, especially given how strong they have been this season, but these things can happen and, for Max, a power deficit issue reared its head to rather scupper his chances of earning a start further up the field in Q3.

After quali, Max spoke to the press here at the Hungaroring and had this to say:

“I just had no power. We tried to fix it, the engine was running but there was no release.

“It’s hard to pass around here but we can still get a good result, anything could happen. To start P10 anything is possible.

“It was good. All the guys and girls here and at the factory have analysed a lot overnight because we were not happy at all. We’ve made a lot of positive changes, the car was a lot better to drive and we looked very competitive. I was looking forward to Q3 but that didn’t go to plan but I knew I had pace in the car.”

It’s going to be a fascinating race tomorrow.

We’ve got George Russell leading from the front looking for his first-ever Grand Prix victory, whilst the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will be looking to compound Red Bull’s sluggish qualifying by converting P2 and P3 into a double podium.

Leclerc, of course, is trying to make inroads in a 63-point gap to Verstappen in the Drivers’ standings and at least has a chance of doing that tomorrow, though Max is going to be pushing hard