Max Verstappen was thankful for Lewis Hamilton's failure to set a Q3 lap-time in Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying after a "painful session."
The Red Bull driver - who needs to finish ahead of Lando Norris to secure a fourth straight world title - qualified fifth but has appeared to be behind Hamilton's Mercedes throughout practice and the first two qualifying segments.
Hamilton made mistakes on both his Q3 laps to end up 10th as George Russell took pole, with Verstappen out-qualifying Norris, with the two title rivals sharing the third row.
It has been a difficult weekend for Red Bull, with focus centred on its rear-wing, with steps being taken to trim it after too much drag was produced on the near 1.2-mile long strip part of the circuit.
Reflecting on his session, Verstappen felt thankful for Hamilton's mistakes that earned him an extra spot on the grid.
"We know that with our wing, you naturally lose top speed, especially with the DRS open, it is a bit of a handicap, we know that," he told media including RacingNews365.
"It is something we have to deal with on a track like this, like Monza, but besides that, I felt like with the tyres we were going to struggle to get them into the right operating window - and we did the best we could with what we had and got a bit lucky with Lewis not putting a lap in, otherwise it would have been P6.
"We optimised as a team, but it is still too slow, but half of it is on the straight.
"The wing is not the most efficient but hopefully with everyone close in DRS, it is a little better, but when you trim the DRS, you have less of a DRS effect - and that is what is painful in qualifying.
"It will be difficult, but hopefully we are decent on tyres and we made some changes that will help the tyres as well."
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