Red Bull team boss Christian Horner believes Max Verstappen was in a position to start on the second row for Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix, had he not got caught up in a fight over track position in the final seconds of Q3.
Verstappen found himself behind the two Mercedes and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc as he approached the penultimate corner to start his final flying lap. However he was passed at the hairpin by Sebastian Vettel and the two Renault cars, forcing him to back off to find a gap, but that meant he crossed the line too late and couldn't complete his final lap.
Prior to that, Verstappen had split the Ferraris, but Leclerc managed to improve by two-tenths and jumped the Dutchman.
Horner believes had Verstappen been able to complete his final run, he had a strong chance of beating one or both of the Ferraris, which were split by just +0.017s.
"A bit of jockeying for position at the start of the lap [cost us]," Horner told Sky Sports.
"Max was in a good position but then Sebastian passed him around the outside, so he’s then hung back not to get into Sebastian’s dirty air, then the Renaults passed him and he’s hung back again and unfortunately the clock ticking down the way it was, he didn’t make it to the line in time.
"It's a shame because it would have been a good opportunity to try and improve. I think we could have made the second row today.
"We managed it in the previous two sessions and in the first run [of Q3]. Just means we’ll have to race harder tomorrow."
Horner took the positives from the session with regards to Pierre Gasly who secured his best result of the season so far.
"A good solid qualifying for Pierre. He made it into Q3 with one run in Q2. Unfortunately he got caught out in that train, he was at the back of the queue as they were all backing up, so he didn’t get a chance either, but a lot of confidence he can take from it."
