Red Bull’s Max Verstappen struggled throughout the session in qualifying at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP. While he spun on his last fast lap and finished P6, he later gained two positions due to penalties to Hamilton and Antonelli.
The four time world champion had finished P2 in FP1, P4 in FP2 and P7 in FP3. After Qualifying, he complained that his RB22 got harder to drive as the session went on. This was reflected on his results as the Dutchman finished P2 in Q1, P6 in Q2 and finally P6 in Q3.
Verstappen also suffered a spin on his last attempt in Q3. With just a few seconds remaining on the clock, the Red Bull driver spun on track, causing yellow flags in the last sector and losing his last chance to climb the grid.
Still he gained two positions, and will start P4 on Sunday, as Antonelli and Hamilton received penalties after Qualifying. Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was hit with a three place grid penalty after unnecessarily impeding Oscar Piastri. While Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli received the same after not slowing down sufficiently during the yellow flags.
Verstappen: “The car is degrading”
When asked about his struggled during the F1 2026 Hungarian GP Qualifying, Verstappen stated: “The car just kept getting worse and worse, lap after lap. So the more laps I did, it was just more and more difficult to put a lap together.
“The weekend in general has been difficult, but when, instead of the tyres degrading, the car is degrading, then you have a big problem,” he declared. “So that’s what’s happened.”
He was also questioned about how he knew that the car was getting worse through the session. Verstappen simply answered: “Normally it gets better.”
He further explained: “But my car just kept oversteering more and more. I think I’m quite good at understanding when there is a problem or when I feel something is not right. The car just became uncontrollable in some corners and entries.
“The feeling that you have the car just not sticking anymore. I’ve felt it before, but this, again, it’s not good.”
“It’s always a different problem,” says Verstappen on Red Bull’s issues
Max Verstappen was also asked whether he had felt anything similar with his RB22 before in the season. “Well, you’ve seen a few. But let’s see where it’s coming from now, because I always feel like it’s always a different problem. And that’s why we think it’s harder to control.
“For tomorrow as well, we need to fix it, because the car is not drivable like this,” he warned. “As you can see in the final corner, I mean, it just turned in, the car is like non-existent in the rear. So it’s really crazy.”
On current issues, the Dutch driver abstained from pointing out a specific problem. “Well, of course I need to see the data myself. But they could see loss in aero, and it kept getting worse. So that’s not good.”
