San Francisco Frontiers - Verstappen says he is no longer the leader of the pack

The three-time world champion and series leader has claimed only one pole position in six Grands Prix as Red Bull’s grip on a substantial performance advantage has disintegrated and rival teams have drawn level or passed them.

Verstappen has taken 40 pole positions in his career, but only one – in Austria – since dominating the early season races by taking seven in succession before his spell was broken by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the Monaco Grand Prix.

"I love competition," he said on Saturday. "But I like being on top of the competition. At the moment, I feel like we are chasing and having a few more difficult weekends.

"I don’t back out of a fight, but it’s just a tricky situation I guess."

In spite of his declining fortunes in qualifying, he has managed – without tangible support from struggling team-mate Sergio Perez – to remain a strong contender in races and starts Sunday’s contest with an 84-point lead ahead of Norris in the drivers’ title race.

However, Red Bull have begun to appear increasingly stretched and desperate in a bid to defend their titles as their performance superiority ebbs away, as the Dutchman admitted when he welcomed the team’s major upgrade package this weekend.

"Let’s see," he said, when asked about his prospects in the race. “The last few races, the McLaren especially has been really good in the race even compared to qualifying.

"Today was a lot colder than expected, I guess, with the clouds and the rain, and tomorrow is going to be quite a different day so I just hope that will help us."

The changing weather conditions have influenced and affected recent results as Mercedes won in Austria and Britain, but struggled in the heat at the Hungaroring where McLaren shone on Saturday.

"I tried," said Verstappen. “The whole weekend we have been a little bit behind and I think that was also the case in qualifying.

"I tried to make it as close as possible, but unfortunately just not enough.

- Tense and close' -

"It’s a bit difficult to pin-point why that is, but I would have liked a bit more grip, but it’s not there at the moment.

"P3 is still very close, but I just hope that for tomorrow the car is good in the race and at least we can follow them and see what we can do there."

In a tense and close wet-dry session on Saturday, the top eight qualifiers were separated by only one-tenth of a second with the top three within hundredths of a second of each other.

Norris, 24, clocked a best lap in one minute and 15.227 seconds to outpace Piastri by 0.022 seconds, leaving Verstappen three-hundredths of a second adrift in third ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who leaves the team at the end of the year, and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, who will replace him.

It was Norris’s second pole in four races and the third of his burgeoning career as he gains front-running experience in his bid to challenge Verstappen who, on Sunday seeks to complete a hat-trick of Hungarian wins.

The Dutchman has led the drivers’ title race for a record 51 successive races since May 2022 and is third in the all-time standings with 61 wins, behind Hamilton on 104 and Michael Schumacher on 91.

T.Rivera--SFF