World champion Max Verstappen says a set-up change that made his Red Bull car bounce was behind his muted qualifying session for Formula 1's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Verstappen looked to be in the hunt with the Ferraris and McLarens all weekend but struggled to wring a great lap out of his Red Bull RB20 when it mattered in qualifying.
The Dutchman only managed sixth, 0.658s behind polesitter Charles Leclerc, while being outqualified by team-mate Sergio Perez for the first time since last year's Miami Grand Prix, 33 races ago.
According to Verstappen, Red Bull overdid a set-up change ahead of qualifying, which impacted his car balance and introduced rear-end bouncing.
"As soon as I went out in Q1, I just felt the car took a step back," Verstappen explained. "We made some changes and the car just became incredibly unpredictable and difficult.
"That caused a lot of bouncing in the back of the car when turning in and out of a corner. In Q2 it still went relatively well, but the car did not feel good and I couldn't get the maximum out of it. I had too much oversteer, and you don't want that on a street circuit."
"Of course, I'm a bit disappointed with that, because you always try to make things better. And unfortunately, we just tipped it over the edge.
"In my first run in Q3, I lost it in the last corner. Then you still have a run to improve your lap time, but I just didn't have the feeling in the car. We changed some things and know what the problem is. This is a bummer."
Asked if his car was still a "monster" like in Monza, he said: "No, no, we did improve the car. But now with the set-up we tried to make a few things better and unfortunately it went the other way."
F1's parc ferme rules mean Red Bull is limited in the number of further changes it can make ahead of the race, which is leaving Verstappen pessimistic over his chances to break his six-race winless streak. "The way the car feels now is not good," he concluded. "We'll see."
Verstappen's plight doesn't take away from Perez's solid fourth qualifying position, which confirmed positive signs in practice that the Mexican may yet turn his fortunes around this season on one of his favourite circuits.
"The team has done a tremendous job on bringing upgrades to correct the issues we've been having," Perez said.
"The car was allowing me to be confident. If I had arrived here with the car that I had for the entire season, I would have had a similar result.
"We've had a very difficult period, but I think it's probably the biggest progress we've made with the car since the beginning of the year.
"So, hopefully that can translate into race pace tomorrow as well. The car balance is definitely going in the right direction."
