Max Verstappen puzzled by worrying Red Bull trait after Austria failure: 'Miles away'

Max Verstappen was left puzzled at his Red Bull's sudden loss of performance in Austrian Grand Prix qualifying, as he took his equal-worst result of the season.

Verstappen qualified a lowly seventh at Red Bull's home race, his worst result since Bahrain, and was even out-qualified by Liam Lawson's Racing Bulls machine.

The Dutchman, however, did not get to complete a final flying lap owing to Pierre Gasly's spinning in the final corner, with yellow flags being deployed - also scuppering Oscar Piastri's chances of challenging for pole.

Verstappen ultimately ended just under a second behind pole-sitter Lando Norris, as he explained the mysterious loss of performance, having branded the car "undriveable" in Q2.

"It would have been close, potentially up until the yellow flag," Verstappen explained.

"But we were still miles off pole, so in the end, it is not really that painful. 

"FP3 wasn't too bad, but somehow in qualifying, [the balance] just completely disappeared, like it was only a single corner where I felt happy with the car - and then that is a big problem in qualifying. 

"I don't really look at the standings, I just want to do the best I can in the race weekend, and hopefully, in the race, we can be competitive with Ferrari or Mercedes.

"I don't know, because with the balance I had in qualifying, it is not looking great for tomorrow, but we will analyse everything."