Max Verstappen said the new C6 soft compound brought by Pirelli to Imola went away from him during his final qualifying lap.

The Dutch driver missed out on pole position by the smallest of margins as McLaren’s Oscar Piastri pipped him on the final runs in Q3.

Max Verstappen: I just ran out of tyres

Setting a 1:14.722 on his first flying lap in Q3, Verstappen was making the most of his upgraded Red Bull RB21 to get a nose ahead of the two McLaren drivers around Imola.

Having dialled in the setup of his car overnight after a tricky Friday in which he reported a lack of confidence in the rear, Verstappen’s time was enough to keep ahead of both papaya cars with the trio covered by just under two-tenths of a second.

For the second runs, George Russell eschewed the C6 soft tyre brought along to Imola for its maiden appearance and, instead, went for the medium compound C5 – usually the softest tyre in Pirelli’s entire range.

But the slightly greater longevity of this tyre allowed Russell to jump ahead of Norris for third, while Verstappen fell just shy of pole position by 0.034 seconds as Piastri improved.

With Verstappen having set a new personal best through the first sector, he attributed his inability to keep ahead of Piastri as being down to the C6 – a compound the teams are yet to fully get to grips with – as being the primary reason.

“The only problem I think that I had in qualifying was basically, the faster I wanted to go, the more problems that I had with the tyres just overheating, and that was just holding me back in Q3 already on the first run and then, when I tried to go faster on the second run, the first sector was great, and then I just ran out of tyres,” he said.

“So yeah, I just started understeering more, and I just tried to keep the lap together, really. But that’s a bit of a shame, I think.

“When we came in, I saw that George was on the medium, and, honestly, I also felt better in FP3 on the medium, but, simply, you don’t really have the tyres to qualify on it properly.

“Of course, for tomorrow, we want to make sure that we have the tyres in a good window.”

The use of the C6 compound at the reasonably low-abrasion Imola circuit had been suggested by Pirelli as being capable of producing a full lap without any deterioration, but Verstappen said he believed the compound to beyond what the circuit surface would permit in this regard.

“It’s the first time with the C6 as well,” he said.

“So I think no one is really on top of it. But it’s clear that, for a track like this, it’s really on the limit, or already a bit over the limit.”

With Red Bull having rolled out further updates to the RB21 this weekend following on from tweaks made in Saudi Arabia and Miami, Verstappen confirmed there had been a big improvement in handling overnight with the car “a lot nicer to drive”.

“Yesterday was a tough start, but I think today we definitely put it in a better window,” he said.

“I was a bit happier with how the car was just coming alive, and also the balance of the car. So I definitely think that’s a positive. It’s just that the tyre compounds this weekend didn’t really help us to be that soft, because we know that we just overheat our tyres a bit more than we would like. So that is still a focus point for us.”

As for whether victory might yet be on the cards for Verstappen, the four-time F1 World Champion said much of his challenge will be determined by the start.

“I’ll just try to do a good start, and then just see where I’m at with the pace, because yesterday wasn’t particularly good in the long run also,” he said.

“Yeah, it’s just see with the new setup that we have on the car. Hopefully, it all just sticks a bit better on the tarmac, and, just in general, is a bit more competitive.”

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