It was strange to see Max Verstappen struggling so much in wet conditions in China. It started down-pouring as the 10 drivers were preparing for the final shootout in the Sprint Qualifying earlier in the day. Verstappen, who was the favorite to take pole position, was struggling to even keep his car on the track as the conditions got worse in SQ3. In the end, he could only secure P4 with his teammate, Sergio Perez further behind in P6.

After the qualifying, Verstappen revealed that he was struggling with a mechanical issue with his car, which started when he put on the intermediate rubber. Initially, things were looking good for Red Bull during practice in Shanghai, leading to Sergio Perez topping the charts in the first section of the Sprint Qualifying.

It was Max Verstappen who then took the top spot in SQ2. For the top-10 shootout, Red Bull held off sending their cars out until the last minute, keeping the tire warmers on until the end, giving both drivers an advantage. However, Max Verstappen found himself struggling on the wet track. He slid off the track multiple times and barely managed to secure the fourth starting position.

During post-qualifying interviews, Verstappen explained, “When we strapped on the intermediates, my steering wheel was suddenly crooked. And then I just couldn’t get them up to temperature, even though I was pushing hard. We’ll have to investigate that. Normally we always do well in the wet. Today I could hardly keep the car on the track. It was like driving on ice.“

Even Perez couldn’t save the day for Red Bull, finishing two positions behind Verstappen in sixth place. Looking ahead to the Sprint race on Saturday, Verstappen remains optimistic about racing in dry conditions despite not starting in the ideal spot on the grid.

Max Verstappen is worried about starting the Sprint race on the inside line

The Shanghai International Circuit is returning to the F1 calendar after an almost half a decade break. The track was largely unused apart from a few local category races, meaning the grip levels were extremely low as the cars hit the track for the first time. What made things worse for the teams was that the track surface had been repainted. And so, any data the teams might have had from past races was useless.

And the rain washed away any rubber the cars had put down earlier in the Practice session. For Max Verstappen, this is a bit of concern because he will have to start the Sprint race from the inside line, which remains largely unused during flying runs. “Things went very well for us in the dry. At most we still need a bit of fine-tuning. But we can actually be happy with the pace,” Verstappen was quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

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“It’s not ideal to start on the inside here. Because of the surface on the asphalt, the grip there is significantly less. We have to try to get away from the line as best we can after that it will be a long stint on one set of tires. That should make the whole thing very interesting,” he added.

Can Max Verstappen recover from P4 and get to another Sprint win tomorrow morning? Share your race predictions in the comments down below.