It was indeed a shocking end to the qualifying session in Mexico City; Max Verstappen was looking quite comfortable, heading into the session after having dominated against the Mercedes duo over FP3.

And after witnessing Red Bull’s pace through Q1 and Q2, there was little doubt that the Dutchman could mess up in Q3. And boy did he make it look as colossal as possible, thanks to his Red Bull F1 teammate, Sergio Perez, and the sister team, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Not only did the Dutchman lose out on the pole position to Valtteri Bottas, but he also went on to squander a front-row start altogether.

But, having to start from behind both the Mercedes drivers on Sunday, is Verstappen at a major disadvantage? Well, not at all. In fact, Verstappen heaved a sigh of relief that he isn’t starting the race from 2nd, the position his rival will instead be starting from on Sunday.

What did Max Verstappen say?

During the post-qualifying interview in the parc ferme, Verstappen reckoned that he could have challenged for the pole. However, the late distractions caused by his own teammate led the Dutchman to wreck his lap. Nevertheless, Verstappen doesn’t mind starting behind the Mercedes duo, thanks to the long run, heading into turn 1.

“Actually, in the last lap, I was on for a good lap. But, then, I don’t know what happened in front of me, but there were two guys going off. So, I thought, you know, there as gonna be a yellow flag, so I back out. And the lap is of course destroyed,” Verstappen said.

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“But, even with that – we not having a great balance – I think we still could have gone for that pole lap. But, of course, third is not amazing but I think it’s still better than starting second.”

Overall, Verstappen will be looking to pull off a better getaway at lights out on Sunday and hope to beat at least one of the Mercedes drivers before turn 1.

While Verstappen will be receiving a strong tow from Bottas, the other Red Bull of Perez will be getting his fair share of tow from Hamilton. But, who is snatching the lead by the end of the first corner? Well, we’ll know soon enough.

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