The Dutchman was confused as to why Red Bull had been passed by Mercedes in qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s failure to take pole for the Mexican Grand Prix was “a bit of a mystery,” according to Max Verstappen, who believes Mercedes locked out the front row.

After dominating the second and third free practice sessions at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Verstappen was largely expected to take pole.

With a strong first Q3 run, Valtteri Bottas took top spot in qualifying, leading a Mercedes 1-2 from teammate Lewis Hamilton.

“I think we just were really slow and just [had] terrible grip in Q3,” Verstappen told media.

“I think my last lap we recovered that a bit just [by] getting the tyres into a little bit [of] a better window.

“But [it’s] still not to what we would have liked, and how the car has been behaving in all the practice sessions, so that’s a bit of a mystery.

“But then we [will] mainly race on different tyres anyway, so I expect the balance to be good again.”

Verstappen’s rear wing had cracks before qualifying

The Red Bull mechanics were seen repairing Verstappen’s rear wing just before qualifying. During the session, tape was also visible on the right side of the rear wing.

The incident was “nothing serious,” according to Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner, and Verstappen confirmed the rear wing had cracked prior to qualifying.

Following a similar issue two weeks ago at the Circuit of the Americas, his rear wing has been cracked for the second consecutive event.

“They were cracked after FP3,” said Verstappen. “So we had to patch them up and basically they were like new to start qualifying.

“I don’t think that had anything to do with it. But, of course, we’ll have a look into it again.”

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