Max Verstappen had made a big claim about his hopes for the 2025 drivers' world title following qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix, saying that he can now start to forget about winning it. The Dutch racer explained that performance like his during the qualifying on Saturday can not catch Lando Norris, who is now 39 points ahead.
Verstappen arrived into the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend with hopes of reducing the gap to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the drivers' standings. But the racer has struggled to get to grips with his Red Bull throughout the weekend, struggling to find the right balance since the first practice session on Friday.
The four-time world champion was knocked out in Q1 in qualifying on Saturday, making it the first time he did so since 2021. Now he starts the race from P16 and is not too hopeful about his prospects of achieving something miraculous.
Speaking to the media about his title prospects after qualifying on Saturday, Verstappen insisted:
"I can forget about that. From where we are starting it's not going to work and with these kinds of performances, I mean, forget about it."
Current Scenario in F1 drivers' championship race
As previously mentioned, Verstappen is now 39 points behind Norris in the standings thanks to the latter's sprint win earlier on Saturday. The championship leader is starting on pole again for the race on Sunday, giving him another big opportunity to widen the gap at the top of the table.
Oscar Piastri, who moved nine points behind his teammate after his crash in the sprint, is kicking off the Brazilian Grand Prix from fourth after another above average performance from the Australian. The Mercedes duo of Kimi Antonelli (2nd) and George Russell (3rd) separated the two McLaren cars on the grid for the race.
Max Verstappen outlines problems during Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying
Max Verstappen said that he had to "underdrive" his Red Bull during the Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying because of lack of grip. The 28-year-old also explained that he was not expressing his RB21 to be as poor as it turned out to be on Saturday.
Interacting with the media after qualifying, Verstappen reacted to the problems he faced with his car on Saturday.
"It’s not what you want to see. The whole weekend has already been quite tough but this is a bit unexpected I would say after changing quite a bit on the car," said Verstappen, via Formula1.com.
"It was just not responding. I had no grip out there so I had to really massively underdrive it basically. It just didn’t work," he added.
After qualifying in 16th, there is a possibility that Red Bull opts to fit a new power unit in Max Verstappen's car, meaning he would start from the pit lane on Sunday. When questioned about this, the racer explained that this isn't necessarily the way the Austrian team is going, but a decision will be taken overnight.