Max Verstappen reflects on a narrow escape in Silverstone sprint qualifying

It is not often you see Max Verstappen sounding relieved by a third-place finish, but after a messy practice session, the Red Bull driver knows he dodged a bullet. He admitted his P3 in Sprint Qualifying could just as easily have been a P6 or P7, highlighting just how tight the margins are right now. The Dutchman was over three tenths off the pace set by Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli, and he is clearly not satisfied with the state of his machine. From cornering balance to deployment issues, there is plenty of work to do before the team can truly challenge at the front.

Verstappen isn't kidding himself about the Sprint race either; he expects to be fighting the cars behind him rather than chasing the leaders. It was a tougher day for his teammate Isack Hadjar, who finished in P8 and was visibly frustrated with his own performance. While Hadjar knows he was not far off, he is already looking for answers on how he lost that final time. It is a tense situation at Red Bull, and they will need to find those missing tenths quickly if they want to stay in the hunt.