Max Verstappen has ruled out his chances of fighting at the front in the Mexico City Grand Prix unless his rivals \u201cretire”.<\/p>\n
Four-time world champion Verstappen<\/a> had to settle with fifth place in a difficult qualifying and ended up 0.484 seconds off the pace set by McLaren\u2019s Lando Norris<\/a>, who stormed to an impressive pole position.<\/p>\n The result marked a blow for Verstappen in his incredible comeback bid to win this year\u2019s world championship, with the Dutchman 26 points behind Norris and 40 adrift of leader Oscar Piastri<\/a>, who starts down in seventh.<\/p>\n Verstappen had already outlined his fears that Red Bull would not be able to win in Mexico despite topping Friday practice, and those concerns remain.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we knew, we would change it and unfortunately we don\u2019t,\u201d Verstappen told Sky Sports F1.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve tried so many things and it\u2019s not been good. It\u2019s not the lack of trying, it\u2019s not finding it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went into Qualifying trying something again and we didn\u2019t get it quite right in some corners. It made it better in some places, but in other areas more difficult and that didn\u2019t allow me to push.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew from the first run of Q1 that was not going to be it. Basically, everything we tried didn\u2019t really work.<\/p>\n \u201cThere isn\u2019t really a recovery drive when you have no pace. I need people to retire in front of me to go ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery lap that I did this weekend has not been good. In the short run or the long run it never felt in the window and that is not going to suddenly change tomorrow for the better.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Have Red Bull\u2019s \u2018random\u2019 experiments backfired?<\/p>\n