Max Verstappen endured his worst qualifying performance of the 2025 F1 season so far at the Bahrain Grand Prix, with the Red Bull driver only able to get seventh place.
The Dutchman arrived in Sakhir straight off the back of his sensational showing at Suzuka as Verstappen stole pole position and won the Japanese Grand Prix. But Red Bull failed to carry the 27-year-old’s display over to the Bahrain GP, where McLaren star Oscar Piastri took pole.
Verstappen finished Q3 a massive 0.582 seconds off Piastri’s pace to only earn a spot on the fourth row of the grid alongside Williams driver Carlos Sainz. He can potentially at least take a little bit of comfort in F1 drivers’ championship leader Lando Norris only qualifying in sixth.
Max Verstappen’s braking problems in qualifying for the Bahrain GP surprise Marc Priestley
Norris botched his last flying lap in Q3 to trail his McLaren teammate Piastri by 0.426s in the fight for pole at the Bahrain GP. Verstappen was never a threat for pole as the Red Bull racer struggled to get his braking right from the start and throughout qualifying at the Bahrain GP.
His session started poorly when Verstappen had to abort his very first flying lap of qualifying after the four-time reigning champion locked up into Turn 14 and ran off the road. He would ultimately finish Q1 in third place with a 1:31.303, trailing Norris’ table-topping 1:31.107 lap.
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The fact Verstappen locked the Red Bull racer’s front left tyre in Q1 at the Bahrain GP caught Marc Priestley slightly by surprise. The former McLaren mechanic found it ‘unusual’ that the 41-time pole-sitter locked the loaded tyre when he took the final true corner on the circuit.
“Max Verstappen aborted his lap when he went into Turn 14,” Priestley said on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra. “It was the left front tyre he locked, which is the outside tyre just at the point where he would be able to turn in.
“That’s unusual. It’s usually the unloaded tyre that locks up if anything, and it seems that was the loaded tyre.”
Max Verstappen laments the braking performance of his Red Bull RB21 in Bahrain
It would not just be in Q1 that Verstappen struggled under braking with the Red Bull driver’s complaints continuing to build into and during Q3 at the Bahrain GP. The Dutchman failed to find a happy feeling on the brakes in Sakhir – and Verstappen let Red Bull know his thoughts.
“My brakes are just terrible,” Verstappen cried over Red Bull’s team radio during Q3. “I can’t brake at all. So bad.”
His braking problems helped to see Verstappen register his worst qualifying performance of the 2025 F1 season so far at the Bahrain GP. The Dutchman had qualified in the top four for each of the first three Grands Prix this year with P3 in Australia, P4 in China and P1 in Japan.
It is also in contrast to his performance at Suzuka where it was Verstappen’s brilliance under braking that made the difference in his fight for pole. Also, Red Bull do not want to ‘sacrifice’ the RB21’s braking performance to fix their through-corner balance issues Verstappen hates.
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