‘It’s just too slow’ - Max Verstappen stunned by front row result

Max Verstappen has admitted surprise over his front row result during sprint qualifying ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix.

Verstappen narrowly missed out on the top spot to Lewis Hamilton, who topped the session for Ferrari.

The gap between the pair read just 0.018s after their final laps as they managed to beat both McLaren cars, who were the heavy favourites heading into the session.

Having had a difficult practice session just hours before, Verstappen was left shocked but content with his sprint qualifying result.

“I do think that in the first practice, we were quite a bit off,” Verstappen said. “So I'm very happy to be on the front row.

“The lap was very good. It’s always very tough when you go from a medium to a soft to nail the lap with no references.

“When you look at it, it was 0.018s off pole. I don't think we should have even been on the front row anyway, so I'm very happy to be second.

“Nothing dramatic [changed on the car] because I don't think the balance is massively off. It’s just too slow, I would say.

“But this is, this is good for us. It's a little little motivational boost. We keep nailing the laps, we keep trying to maximise everything that we got.

“You need to do that as well when you're maybe struggling a little bit more for pace.”

However, Verstappen is anticipating the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, who start third and sixth respectively, will pose more of a threat during Saturday's sprint race.

“I think they looked very fast up until that last run,” he said. “So I think it will be very hard to keep them behind.

“But hopefully, it will be fun. Hopefully, we can race a bit. That would be nice for me.”