Red Bull alarm bells ringing for Verstappen: 'Nothing worked'

Max Verstappen pulled no punches in condemnation of his qualifying performance for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Four-time F1 champion Verstappen was unable to find a positive after qualifying seventh at the Bahrain International Circuit, finishing a staggering six-tenths of a second behind polesitter Lando Norris in his McLaren.

After sitting out FP1 for reserve Ayumu Iwasa, Verstappen has complained bitterly about certain aspects of his RB21, notably the failings with his brakes.

"Just too slow," Verstappen told Viaplay as he sounded alarm bells just a week following his superb performance in qualifying a week ago in Suzuka that netted him pole position from which he won the 64th grand prix of his career.

"Bad balance in the car, too. I couldn't brake and couldn't steer, the car didn't turn and I had no traction. Very tricky. This has been like this all weekend. We flipped the car from left to right, but nothing worked."

Verstappen maintained that it "wasn't necessarily worse than expected", but he offered little hope for his chances in the race.

"For tomorrow, also no balance, so it's all very difficult at the moment on this circuit," he added.

"I also have no feeling in the brakes. When you hit the pedal, it's like hitting a wall. It just doesn't stop. Very inconsistent, too, but I've been suffering from that all weekend - all year actually, but even more so on this track.

"Right now I'm not thinking about the race. We'll see when we wake up."