Like at Interlagos, Verstappen was𝓰 well beaten to pole by Hami๊lton with 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 Mercedes drivers by himself.

“I think we are just lacking a bit of pace,” Verstappen said after qualifying. “I think it’s been j✃ust 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 struggl♕ing a bit more than normal.

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

Assessing his final lap in Qatar, Verstappen felt his final ef🐻fort in Q3 was a good lap despite it not beꦦing enough to get within four-tenths of Hamilton.

“It’s been a bit up and down, ha🐭ppy in FP1, then not so happy in FP2 and three, then I was actually 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 paℱce coming.

“The la꧙st few ra𒀰ces 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 difference in lap time a🧜nd I was a bit wow didn’t even need to risk it then if it was such a big gap, nevertheless had fun out there, qualifying has been cool, it’s a really beautiful track and a lot of fun to drive.”

Verst🍸appen has a 14-point lead over Hamilton going into Sunday’🅰s Qatar Grand Prix.