Red Bull rues missed P3 after Barcelona qualifying

Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar came out of Spanish Grand Prix qualifying encouraged by Red Bull’s sudden step forward, but both left Barcelona feeling third on the grid had been there to take after ending up fifth and sixth.

That outcome looked unlikely earlier in the weekend. Hadjar described a tough Friday and a complicated Saturday morning before Red Bull found more pace when it mattered, while Verstappen said he had gone into qualifying expecting the team to be “miles off” and fighting only for seventh or eighth.

Instead, Verstappen put himself in the mix for the second row. He set the fastest first sector on his decisive Q3 lap, only to lose the chance in the final part of the circuit. “The gap was much smaller. Looking back, fifth place looks good, but we also had a real opportunity to finish third,” Verstappen said. “In the final sector the car started to slide too much and I couldn't follow the ideal line.”

He also felt the interrupted rhythm of Q3 did not help. After only he and Oscar Piastri completed their first flying laps before a red flag, Verstappen said the wait of “like 10 minutes in the pits” left him short of momentum at a key moment in the session.

Hadjar’s frustration was similar, even after taking sixth on the grid. He finished less than a tenth behind third-placed Kimi Antonelli and only three tenths off pole, a result he admitted was hard to reconcile with Red Bull’s form through most of the weekend. “Tough Friday, Saturday morning and then in Qualifying, it looks like we picked up the pace a bit,” Hadjar said.

He added: “I don't even know how we are three tenths off pole because we've been a second off the whole time,” before calling it “a bit disappointing” to miss out on P3.

For Red Bull, that left Barcelona qualifying as both a recovery and a missed opening. After looking set for a much tougher afternoon, the team instead locked out the third row and showed enough late pace for both drivers to believe the fight at the front was closer than expected heading into Sunday.