Max Verstappen detailed that his Red Bull continued to suffer from bouncing, jumping and oversteer during the Qatar Sprint, pinning it as a "big problem".
The four-time world champion started the final sprint race of the season from sixth on the grid and made an excellent start to be in fourth by the end of the opening corners.
He overtook Fernando Alonso for fifth before Yuki Tsunoda let him past at Turn 4, allowing Verstappen to pressurise Lando Norris.
Unfortunately, despite an initial battle, Verstappen quickly fell adrift of the championship leader and complained to Red Bull once again about his RB21's behaviour.
Crucially, with Oscar Piastri winning the sprint at the Lusail International Circuit and Norris finishing in third, Verstappen has slipped to 25 points adrift of the top of the standings.
To remain in the title fight going into the Abu Dhabi season finale, he must finish ahead of the Briton. For Verstappen to have a chance at doing that, Red Bull has performance to find before qualifying.
Discussing his bouncing issues continuing in the sprint, Verstappen told Sky F1: "Yeah, it's been difficult so far.
"The start was, of course, good, and I think the first three laps, I just pushed a bit more compared to the guys ahead, to try and have an opportunity, knowing that passing was tough.
"But after that, you just get into the same trouble. And of course, the more the tyres wear, the more you feel those kind of issues. And that basically also then prevented us from really following them. I was basically just doing my own race out there.
"Yeah, we need to work on that, try and get rid of the bouncing, jumping, understeer in general in the long corners. That's still a big problem."
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