Verstappen trialed Leclerc by two-tenths following the firs🦄t runs of Q3 and was one-and-a-half tenths up on Leclerc’s time in the first sector of his final effort before the Ferrari driver crashed at the exit of the Swimming Pool.

Th🎃e Dutchman was forced to abort his final lap due to the red flags and was unable to improve on his time, leavin🌠g him second on the grid for Sunday’s race.

“It was unfo𓃲rtunate, of course, with the red flag because I felt really comfortable in qualifying just building up to it,” said Verstappen.

“I think nobody 🍨was really putting a lap time in on the first lap, and that’s how we basically pl▨anned it out, to do basically two laps, and then your third lap is the fastest.

“It was all goin♑g really well, but of course the red flag ruine♓d the chance for pole, but we’ll see.

“Nevertheless, I think so far, a very good weekend. We recovered well from fr𒅌om Thursday, so not too bad.”

Despite missing out on pole, Verstappen credited the work from his team to turnaround his car after he was left alarmed by his strug༒gles on Thursday.

Verstappen said that some “big changes” were key to improving Red Bull’s fortune🌄s ℱin qualifying.

“Everyone back at the factory and here at the track did an amazing job to basically give me the car I wa🐭nted because we were quite far out on Thursday, which I didn’t expect,” he explained.

“I really thought that from the start, just with the characteristic of our car throughout the whole year, that it should be quite good around here. Lucꦇkily🦩 we found it around here.”

With championship rival Lewis Hamilton only seventh on the grid, Verstappen is eyein💯g a big points swing in the tiܫtle race on Sunday.

“It’s always important to score a lot of points and you always want to be ahead of your main rivals by as much as you can,” he said. “So today was good b✤ut of course we need to finish that off tomorrow.”