Max Verstappen: The track was very slippery.

      Max Verstappen qualified second in Las Vegas, 0.323 seconds behind pole-sitter Lando Norris. The Red Bull Racing driver compared driving on the street circuit in the rain to driving on ice.

      His teammate Yuki Tsunoda saw his qualifying end in the first session, posting the 19th fastest time.

      Max Verstappen (2nd): “The track was very, very slippery. It’s slippery even when the tarmac is dry, and driving in the rain was unpleasant. I enjoy driving on a wet track, but today the driving was comparable to driving on ice.

      It took a long time to warm the tyres up to get them working. To my feeling we looked more competitive on the full wets, but the track was improving, so we had to switch to intermediates. It was difficult to get any grip from those tyres.

      On the final lap I pushed a bit more, but it still wasn’t enough to fight for pole. Nevertheless, the front row is a good result for us.

      I’m now really looking forward to the race. I hope the grip will be okay, but we’ll see.”

      Yuki Tsunoda (19th): “I don’t know what to say. I just had no grip. It felt like I was driving on ice. I did everything I could, but there was simply no grip. I’m not exactly sure what happened with the set of tyres, but their behaviour was very strange.

      Up until today I had a fantastic pace, probably my best ever. But in the end qualifying was very difficult.”