Verstappen frustrated red flag cost him Monaco F1 pole

Verstappen trialed Leclerc by two-tenths following the first runs of Q3 and was one-and-a-half tenths up on Leclerc’s time in the first sector of his final effort before the Ferrari driver crashed at the exit of the Swimming Pool.

The Dutchman was forced to abort his final lap due to the red flags and was unable to improve on his time, leaving him second on the grid for Sunday’s race.

“It was unfortunate, of course, with the red flag because I felt really comfortable in qualifying just building up to it,” said Verstappen.

“I think nobody was really putting a lap time in on the first lap, and that’s how we basically planned it out, to do basically two laps, and then your third lap is the fastest.

“It was all going really well, but of course the red flag ruined the chance for pole, but we’ll see.

“Nevertheless, I think so far, a very good weekend. We recovered well from from Thursday, so not too bad.”

Despite missing out on pole, Verstappen credited the work from his team to turnaround his car after he was left alarmed by his struggles on Thursday.

Verstappen said that some “big changes” were key to improving Red Bull’s fortunes in qualifying.

“Everyone back at the factory and here at the track did an amazing job to basically give me the car I wanted because we were quite far out on Thursday, which I didn’t expect,” he explained.

“I really thought that from the start, just with the characteristic of our car throughout the whole year, that it should be quite good around here. Luckily we found it around here.”

With championship rival Lewis Hamilton only seventh on the grid, Verstappen is eyeing a big points swing in the title race on Sunday.

“It’s always important to score a lot of points and you always want to be ahead of your main rivals by as much as you can,” he said. “So today was good but of course we need to finish that off tomorrow.”