Max Verstappen: Third place was achievable

      Max Verstappen believes he could have qualified third in Barcelona, but he is quite satisfied with fifth place on the grid. The four-time world champion stated that the team made progress compared to Friday's practice sessions.

      Isaac Hajar confirmed the speed of Red Bull Racing, showing the sixth fastest time.

      Max Verstappen (5th): "We were fast throughout the qualifying, especially in the first sector. Unfortunately, on the final lap in the third sector, everything went wrong. The car was sliding more than I would have liked, and the tires didn't have enough grip on the track.

      We need to figure out what exactly happened. Otherwise, I believe third place on the grid would have been achievable, which would have been a good result.

      Nevertheless, we are still not far from third place, and I was three and a half tenths off pole time, which is good. Yesterday, I didn't think we could compete, so today's result can be considered progress.

      Overall, a good qualifying, and the car handled excellently today. This weekend, everyone is having tire issues, so it will be critically important to choose the right strategy tomorrow."

      Isaac Hajar (6th): "In qualifying, we made progress compared to the practice sessions. I was even surprised by such a small gap from the top three – it’s encouraging, so we worked well today.

      In the final part of qualifying, I messed up the first sector by attacking too hard, so I'm a bit disappointed. Everything else went well.

      Tomorrow we have an interesting race ahead – there will be many pit stops due to tire degradation caused by the high track temperature. The team will need to work together, but we usually choose the right strategies, so we'll see what result we can achieve."