F1 2020 Turkish Grand Prix - Qualifying (Q3) - Max Verstappen's Angry Team Radio
Location: Intercity Istanbul Park, Tuzla, Istanbul, Turkey

‘First time I sit here upset this season' says Verstappen as he questions Q3 tyre switch

Max Verstappen cut a frustrated figure after qualifying second for the Turkish Grand Prix – and questioned the call to switch from wets to intermediate tyres in Q3 when he lost out on top spot on the grid to shock polesitter Lance Stroll.

Verstappen was backed to break Mercedes’ stranglehold on pole positions in 2020 as he led every session up to Q3 this weekend, and at times looked in a league of his own through qualifying. But ultimately he lost out on the pole position that looked there for the taking when he switched from wet tyres to intermediates towards the end of Q3, and Racing Point's Stroll leapfrogged him to set the quickest time. And after the session, he was not happy.

“I think this is the first time this year I sit here upset. I think that says it all,” said Verstappen in the post-qualifying press conference. “It was all going quite well on the wet tyres but already, in Q1 when I tried to go on the inters, they were not working at all even compared to other people on inters around me.

“So I was, in Q3, not very sure to go on inters because I felt really comfortable on the extreme [wet] tyres."

Verstappen lost confidence in the intermediates as he spun on them straight away in Q1
While Verstappen did end up improving his lap on intermediate tyres, he maintained that wets would have suited his RB16 better during Q3.

“I think the track was definitely leaning to intermediates; for me it just felt so poor that I think if I would’ve stayed out on the wets, I could’ve done the same lap time. Clearly something was not working for us today on that tyre,” he explained.

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