Having sailed through Q1 and Q2 at the head of the times, Verstappen made an error on his first run in Q3 and had to abort it.
That left him in ninth and at risk of remaining in that position should a red flag interrupt his second attempt, and that’s exactly what happened after Charles Leclerc crashed his Ferrari.
Despite his obvious frustration – exacerbated by the fact that Red Bull team-mate and title rival Sergio Perez earned pole position – Verstappen tried to remain upbeat, stating that he expected to recover to a “minimum P2.”
“Of course, that is unfortunate,” he said when asked about how Q3 had unfolded. “But first of all, of course, we didn't do a lap. And that was my fault. But yeah, it was extremely tricky.
“I was a little bit offline out of six into seven, I felt a bit of understeer, and I just couldn't get it back on the line. So I aborted my lap.
“And then of course, you need a bit of luck, hoping that there won't be a red flag. But of course, when you try to think like that, then it happens. So, it's a bit upsetting.
“I mean the whole weekend we have been really quick, my Q2 lap was fast enough even for pole in Q3. So, I guess that already says that we have a very quick car. But you need to put it together, and where it matters, we didn't. And that's a bit frustrating for my part.”
He added: “I'm still annoyed with myself, but I also know that tomorrow is a new day, a lot of things can happen.
“It's not ideal, but there’s also no point now to be like super angry or upset about it. But you learn from it. You will do better again next time.”
Asked if he could have attempted a second banker lap on his first set, or gone out earlier on his second, he admitted that the team could have done things differently.
“We could have in hindsight, yeah, we could have also gone out a bit earlier,” he noted. “But at the end of the day, I make a mistake. We don't plan of course on me making a mistake.
“Then of course, you're like, 'Okay, let's go a little bit early, so we might have a clean run.' I was still quite ahead of the few cars. But then you also don't anticipate that one car immediately goes off. That's a street circuit, these things happen.”
Verstappen admitted that it was unfortunate that the red flag came in the one session in which he hadn’t logged a banker lap.
“That's why it's just a bit upsetting. I know it's easily done,” he said. “I mean, we are all on the limit, a tiny mistake can immediately throw you out. And that's what happened to me today. But still you always want to try and be perfect, right? And this was not good.”
Verstappen stressed that he wasn’t going to let the qualifying disappointment get to him.
“I know that the championship isn't won tomorrow,” he said. “And I've been in this position before. You have sometimes a few setbacks, but that doesn't mean that that carries on for the rest of the year or whatever.
“I mean, it can't all be perfect. You hope that it's going to be perfect. I think last year, we had a tough start, but then you still need to nail a few bits yourself. Today was not perfect.”
When asked what he expected to achieve in Sunday’s race, he stated replied: “Minimum P2.”
