Max Verstappen qualified seventh at Silverstone after a qualifying session shaped by engine issues and a clear lack of power. He said there was “no point to race like this” after the problems left him unable to fight at the sharp end for the British Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s power loss
Earlier in qualifying, Verstappen said he was down on power and losing time on the straights. In the final stage, he called the car a “disaster” and said, “I just kept losing a lot on the straights, plus (there was) a bad balance. So it was just very, very poor.”
He had already felt the car was “not great” on Friday. He also explained the effect of the problem in plain terms: “Around here, when you're down on power, you spend more time on the straights, you burn your battery more.”
Mercedes at Silverstone
The setback came on a day when Kimi Antonelli won the sprint race earlier on Saturday and then took pole position for the 2026 British Grand Prix with a lap of 1:28.111-seconds. That was his fifth pole of the season, and Mercedes kept its streak of claiming every pole of the season so far.
George Russell recovered from a Q1 crash to pressure Antonelli in qualifying and will start fourth. Charles Leclerc qualified second, and Lewis Hamilton qualified third.
Red Bull and Sunday
Verstappen said the power problem was “extra painful” going into Sunday's race and added that Red Bull was also struggling in the high-speed corners. He described a “clear disconnect” with the car balance, then said, “It’s a clear problem, and it’s something that of course worries me for tomorrow, because there’s actually no point to race like this tomorrow if we keep the car the same.”
That leaves Red Bull with a straightforward decision point before the British Grand Prix starts at Silverstone: keep the car unchanged and accept a difficult run from seventh, or make a change and try to close the gap he felt through qualifying. Whether Verstappen’s car will be altered before Sunday is the issue hanging over the grid.
