Max Verstappen finished P3 in the F1 Sprint ahead of Sunday’s Chinese GP, ultimately not having the pace to properly challenge Lewis Hamilton. He also damaged his tyres, meaning he lost P2 to Oscar Piastri.
In the first part of the race, Verstappen was around a second away from his 2021 title rival, getting into DRS on a couple of occasions.
Ultimately, however, he ran out of tyres doing that and fell away in the closing stages, losing P2 to Oscar Piastri on lap 15.
Such was the drop-off, George Russell and Charles Leclerc had closed in significantly towards the end.
Max Verstappen in big trouble in the closing laps
The four-time World Champion admitted he was surviving at the end.
“I mean, if you look at it like that, I think it is positive.
“Of course I tried to give it a go because I also had Oscar behind me pushing. So, I was trying to keep him at DRS, that helps a lot on the back straight.
“But unfortunately, yeah, I think the last eight laps, I would say, we just didn’t have the pace to the others. So, I was just trying to survive out there.
“I definitely take that P3. Even the cars behind were catching up quite a lot.
“It was tough out there to manage the tyres somehow. But it’s okay. We’ll try to do better.”
Max Verstappen not feeling too hopeful about his F1 Chinese GP prospects
Heading into the 56-lap F1 Chinese GP on Sunday, Verstappen was not very optimistic about his and the chances of Red Bull.
Graining and high tyre degradation will be the big talking point as clean air is going to be absolutely critical, as Lewis Hamilton demonstrated in the Sprint.
Nonetheless, the Red Bull looks to be lacking the pace of Ferrari and McLaren around Shanghai on both short and long runs.
“We’ll try to make it better.
“We’ll look into the data, see what we can improve a bit on the car.But I think, in general, we just lack a bit of overall pace.
“And then naturally you have to push a bit harder, you kill your tyres a bit more. That makes it very difficult.”
