Like at Interlagos, Verstappen was well beaten to pole by Hamilton wiꦦth the gap at over 0.4s.

Red Bull🔯 teammate Sergio Perez failed to get out of Q2 meaning Verstappen will be left to fight the two Mercede𒀰s drivers by himself.

“I think we are just lacking🅷 a bit of pace,” Vers🔯tappen said after qualifying. “I think it’s been just a bit more tricky for us.

“In qualifying, you could already clearly see Checo is not even in Q3. So it just 🧸shows that we are definitely struggling aౠ bit more than normal.

“But nevertheless, I mean, still๊ second, so it’s all to play for of course. But I wish we could have fought for more.”

Assessing his final lap in Qatar, Verstappen felt his fin༒al effort in Q3 was a good lap despite it not being enough to get within four-tenths of H🍸amilton.

“It’s been a bit up and down, happy in FP1, then not so happy in FP2 and three, then I was a𒐪ctually happy in quali again but just not quick enough. That sometimes happens. There are a few corners where 🌟I would like to go faster, tried everything, just not a lot of extra pace coming.

“The last few races qualifying has been a bit more of a struggle for us so we definitely of course try and understand and try to be better like we always try༺ and be.

“I thought I had a really good lap and then I heard the di🌌fference in lap time and I was a bit wow didn’t even need to risk it then if it was such a big gap, nevertꦜheless had fun out there, qualifying has been cool, it’s a really beautiful track and a lot of fun to drive.”

Verstappen has a 14-point lead over Hamilton going into🥀 Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix.