Verstappen offers British GP hope after 'ripping his floor apart'

Max Verstappen feels his fourth-place qualifying finish for the British Grand Prix is a "positive surprise" after his off-track excursion in Q1 at Silverstone.

The Red Bull driver lost control of his RB20 heading through Copse, skating across the gravel trap and narrowly keeping his car out of the wall.

The 26-year-old revealed the extent of the damage he incurred compromised the rest of his session, saying he was "happy" to reach Q3 at all, let alone qualify fourth in the grid-setting session.

Advisor Helmut Marko said Verstappen lost 100 points of downforce, although repairs in the garage helped reduce the impact to 20 per cent.

The three-time F1 champion will line up alongside recent adversary Lando Norris, with the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton claiming the German marque's first front-row lock-out since the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

"I would like to be in the mix," Verstappen told media, including RacingNews365, when asked about the prospect of attacking the British trio starting ahead of him at Silverstone.

"Actually, first of all, I need a new floor - that would help," he added. "That off, it was super unlucky. 

"I had to take the gravel, which ripped the floor apart. [I] missed quite a few bits on the car, even though I do think the team did a great job of trying to recover some of the bits and try to optimise the balance front to rear. 

"That basically ruined our qualifying. I was happy to be in Q3 already with the damage that we had. At the end, to be P4 is probably a bit of a positive surprise.

Verstappen will go into the race with a new floor on the RB20. Although it will be replaced under parc fermé conditions, as it will be of the same specification as the updated component introduced for this weekend.

The Dutchman, though, explained how he nearly replicated Sergio Perez's session-ending incident, which temporarily halted Q1 with a red flag.

Soon after the session resumed, Verstappen was caught out as a new rain shower approached the circuit.

"I came out of [Turn] 7, heading towards Copse, and it started to rain," he said. "I knew that the people in front of me didn't have that rain patch.

"And of course, they were on slicks, and I knew Q1, we needed that slick lap in because you never know if it's going to rain more and then the session is over - I tried to keep the speed up [but] I did slow down knowing it was raining on my visor, but it's still snapped on me. 

"Then I had to try and keep it out of the wall going offline."