Verstappen slams Red Bull after losing out to Hamilton at qualifying in Hungary

22 July 2023 , 17:09

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Max Verstappen was frustrated after missing out on pole (Image: AP)

Max Verstappen said his Red Bull team was "all over the shop" after he was upstaged by Lewis Hamilton in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Dutchman was seeking six pole positions in a row as he looks to extend his already massive championship advantage in Budapest. But if he is to win, he'll have to do it from the second grid slot after Hamilton snatched pole.

While Verstappen was unable to improve on his final flying lap, Hamilton did manage to squeeze more lap time out of his Mercedes. And it paid off as he went faster than the Red Bull racer by just three-thousandths of a second.

Red Bull brought upgrades with them to Hungary this weekend. It provided Verstappen with a simple reason to point at, and he did exactly that as he reacted to a rare failure to secure pole position.

He said: "I think the update works but I think we didn't really put everything together, set-up wise, because I think today we've just been all over the shop and not exactly where we wanted to be. I've been struggling the whole weekend to find a good balance.

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"It's been very up and down, today in qualifying it was really difficult in Q1, Q2 to attack corners. I thought my first one in Q3 was quite good but my second run again no feeling, tried to push a little more, you lose the rear, lose the front.

"So, we're still second, but I think we should be ahead with the car we have normally. So far this weekend we haven't been on it."

Speaking immediately after the session, Hamilton heaped praise on both Verstappen and Lando Norris, who qualified third. "It's going to be difficult to fight these two guys," declared the seven-time world champion as he struggled to contain his emotions over a first pole since December 2021.

Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole for the first time since December 2021 (Getty Images)

"Lando has been doing a mega job – it's been great to see McLaren up there battling. And Max, you know Max, he's always up there doing his thing.

"I've lost my voice from shouting so much in the car. It's amazing, the feeling. I feel so grateful to be up here because the team have worked so hard. "We've been pushing so hard over this time to finally get a pole.

"And a big thanks to the crowd, we always have an amazing crowd here in Budapest. Wow. I really didn't expect, coming into today, that we would be fighting for pole. So when it went into that last run I gave it absolutely everything. There was nothing left in it."

Daniel Moxon