Max Verstappen faces a combat to take pole place on the Singapore Grand Prix after calling his Red Bull “unacceptable” in closing apply.
As Carlos Sainz raced to the highest of the time charts on the Marina Bay Circuit, Verstappen completed fourth.
The Dutchman is on an unprecedented 10-race successful streak along with his Red Bull workforce unbeaten on the 14 rounds of the season to date.
But Verstappen bemoaned the dealing with of his automotive within the city-state, describing the upshifts in his Red Bull equipment as “unacceptable”.
He added: “These upshifts, what the f***. I am just struggling for rear grip. If I competed in drifting, I might win the race.”
Verstappen returned to the monitor within the closing moments of the one-hour operating, ringing the neck of his Red Bull to maneuver from sixth to fourth, 0.313 sec slower than Sainz.
But his struggles will give the chasing pack hope of lastly stopping Verstappen and Red Bull with Ferrari holding the higher hand heading into qualifying afterward Saturday.
Sainz and team-mate Charles Leclerc traded prime spot within the two apply classes right here on Friday, with the previous once more quickest within the concluding operating earlier than the combat for pole.
Leclerc regarded set to eclipse Sainz solely to make a mistake within the second sector earlier than backing out of his speediest lap, ending fifth.
George Russell took an encouraging second for Mercedes, simply 0.069 sec slower than Sainz, with Lando Norris third in his McLaren. Lewis Hamilton was sixth for Mercedes, inside half-a-second of Sainz.
Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez, who received right here final yr, completed eighth, 0.719 sec again.
Qualifying for the fifteenth spherical of twenty-two takes place at 2100 native time (1400 BST).
