The world champion made amends for losing pole position for the main race on Sunday, thanks to a track limits offence in Friday qualifying, to secure sprint pole in Saturday's shootout session.
The margins over the opposition appeared to be much closer than recent races though. He ended up 0.055 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc and there was only a little over one-tenth separating the top four cars - lifting hopes that things were closing up at the front.
But an intriguing message from Verstappen on the team radio as he returned to the pits following sprint pole hinted that his pace had not been an optimum as hoped.
“Not bad considering the issues,” he told the team.
He later explained to the TV cameras that his final lap had not been an especially good one.
“I think the last lap wasn't particularly great, but we are still on pole,” he said. “So that means that the car was working quite well.”
It has subsequently emerged that Verstappen appears to be in a better place against his rivals than the lap times suggest, as he was left battling driveability issues throughout the shootout. These were triggered by him not quite getting his engine mapping settings spot on.
Source: Autosport