Max Verstappen said he is not optimistic about advancing from his fifth-place grid position in Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix after his worst qualifying performance since August’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s title campaign had gathered momentum at recent rounds after he secured three grands prix wins from the last four races and a sprint race victory at the U.S. Grand Prix.
He is 40 points adrift of championship leader Oscar Piastri, who starts behind Verstappen in seventh place on Sunday’s grid, but is also 26 points off Piastri’s McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who will start from pole position.
As recently as Thursday, Verstappen said he and his Red Bull team needed to be “perfect” to challenge the McLaren drivers for the title, but he is now uncertain if he has the performance to gain positions in Sunday’s race.
“I have no pace, so it doesn’t matter what I do in Turn 1, even if I jump two cars they will get me later in the race,” he said.
“I just need to stay out of trouble and do my own race but every lap I did in the long run has been weak compared to the cars ahead of me.
“So I’ll just try and follow and see what we can do.”
If Verstappen and Norris finish the race where they start, Verstappen will be 41 points shy of Norris with just four rounds remaining.
Asked if his Red Bull was more difficult to drive this weekend in Mexico than it had been at recent races, he added: “Yeah, you summed it up, there’s not much more to say.
“It’s just been very difficult. We tried a lot of stuff, not a lack of trying, but yeah it’s been not great, let’s say it like that.”
