Verstappen reveals where Qualifying ‘fell away from me’ at Imola after missing out on pole to Piastri

Max Verstappen has admitted that it was difficult to keep his soft tyres “alive” during Qualifying for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, as the Red Bull driver narrowly missed out on pole position.

Verstappen finished three-hundredths down on McLaren rival Oscar Piastri after an incident-packed, disrupted session at the Imola circuit, which also saw drivers battling to get the most out of Pirelli’s new C6 compound tyre.

READ MORE: Piastri beats Verstappen and Russell to pole in dramatic Imola Qualifying session

Indeed, several drivers went faster on the medium C5 during final practice, while George Russell used it to qualify third for Mercedes, and Aston Martin pair Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll adopted the same strategy en route to P5 and P8.

Asked to reflect on his session, Verstappen said: “I think everything was going really well, it’s just this softest compound is very difficult to keep alive around the lap. Sector 1 was good, and then the tyres fell away from me – from there onwards like tiny margins.

“It was cool, but then you could see George, he set his lap on the mediums, so maybe they were a bit too soft for this track. For us, at least, it was a bit more difficult to extract the most out of it, I felt a bit happier on the medium.

AS IT HAPPENED: Follow the action from Qualifying as Piastri takes pole for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

“But the race is tomorrow, that’s where you score the points of course, so that’s what we have to focus on – but I did think that today was a very good day for us.”

Pressed on whether the fight is on against McLaren for victory, he added: “Let’s see. The last race [in Miami] was not really a fight. I hope that we just pick up a bit of pace, have a bit more of a stable car, and then hopefully we can look after our tyres a bit better.”

Verstappen heads into the race 32 points down on championship leader Piastri in the Drivers’ Championship standings, while Red Bull are 141 behind McLaren in the Teams’ battle.

READ MORE: Stella pinpoints where Piastri has improved as McLaren driver sits on brink of matching Senna record at Imola

Verstappen’s team mate, Yuki Tsunoda, will start Sunday’s race at the back after an enormous accident in the opening Q1 phase – the Japanese driver walking away but his car suffering significant damage.