Max mystified as grip vanishes in Q3 at Saudi GP

The battle for pole in Saudi Arabia bypassed Max Verstappen as the grip in his Red Bull suddenly went missing for Q3.

Although Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had topped all three practice sessions, Verstappen went into qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as a strong contender for pole, using Q1 and Q2 to reaffirm that he was in the hunt.

It all went wrong though in Q3, as Verstappen failed to come close to the pole pace on his first flying lap, complaining of a lack of grip.

His Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez went on to take pole, while Ferrari placed themselves in P2 and P3 on the grid, Charles Leclerc ahead of Carlos Sainz.

Verstappen improved, but still it was only good enough for P4.

He had expected to continue improving as the track and air temperature tailed off, so was at a loss as to why the grip from his tyres instead fell away.

Quali result #SaudiArabianGP Checo POLE! LEC, SAI, Max P4, OCO, RUS, ALO, BOT, GAS, MAG. #F1 pic.twitter.com/zTO8IAb1xT

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) March 26, 2022

Verstappen told Sky F1: “It wasn’t amazing in Q3, I think Q1 and Q2 everything was looking quite well, just my first set in Q3 was terrible, it was like a completely different feeling with the tyres, they were just moving around a lot more so it was really difficult for me to drive.

“And when you have that bad of a build-up and rhythm then you go onto your second tyre set, I just didn’t really feel comfortable and then also that tyre set I couldn’t really extract like I did in Q1 and Q2.

“And on a track where the ambient temperature is coming down, track temperature is coming down, you should easily improve, but for me it felt quite flat or even worse throughout qualifying.

“It’s the first time I had something