Max Verstappen has defended Yuki Tsunoda after his disappointing qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix, saying his newest Red Bull team-mate is “not a pancake”.

Tsunoda was slowest of all in Saturday’s qualifying at the Barcelona circuit, eight-tenths down on pace-setter Oscar Piastri as he slumped to his second Q1 elimination in three races.

Max Verstappen: Maybe that’s also a sign

But unlike at Imola when he crashed, this time it was a lack of pace that blighted Tsunoda’s qualifying even though he thought he’d put in a good lap.

“The lap in qualifying in both tyres, especially last push, was pretty good,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “Doesn’t really stack up with the results, the pace I’m having.”

Tsunoda’s struggles have meant he’s scored just seven points for Red Bull since joining the team at round three, the Japanese Grand Prix, while in sharp contract Verstappen has brought in 100 to sit third in the Drivers’ standings.

While Red Bull vowed to stick with Tsunoda through to end of the F1 2025 championship, with Helmut Marko adamant that the Japanese driver would stay in the car, Marko conceded after qualifying that “we need to question internally”.

Verstappen agrees, but doesn’t believe Tsunoda should be the focus of those questions.

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“He’s not a pancake, right? When he was in those Racing Bulls, he always looked good compared to Hadjar. But yeah, it is what it is,” he told the Dutch media in Barcelona.

Put to him that having his team-mates struggle isn’t a new story, Verstappen said: “Of course it’s been going on for a long time. Maybe that’s also a sign.”

A sign of what, though, he wouldn’t say.

“You can answer that yourself,” was his response.

Verstappen will line up third on the Barcelona grid having come up short against the McLaren team-mates in qualifying.

Championship leader Oscar Piastri grabbed pole position with a 1:11.546, with Lando Norris two-tenths down and Verstappen a further tenth behind.

Asked if he was happy with his P3, he relied: “Probably not. But you also have to be realistic with what you have, right?

“So I think in that sense we did a good being P3 because the gap behind was very close. To be in front of them is positive, but the gap to McLaren is quite big, yeah.”

He added: “We’ll try our best and see what we can do with the car. Hopefully we can target a podium.”

Verstappen sits third in the Drivers’ Championship, 25 points down on Piastri.

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