Max Verstappen said he is not optimistic about advancing from his fifth-place grid position in Sunday\u2019s Mexican Grand Prix after his worst qualifying performance since August\u2019s Hungarian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Verstappen\u2019s title campaign had gathered momentum at recent rounds after he secured three grands prix wins from the last four races and a sprint race victory at the U.S. Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
He is 40 points adrift of championship leader Oscar Piastri, who starts behind Verstappen in seventh place on Sunday\u2019s grid, but is also 26 points off Piastri\u2019s McLaren teammate Lando Norris, who will start from pole position.<\/p>\n
As recently as Thursday, Verstappen said he and his Red Bull team needed to be \u201cperfect\u201d to challenge the McLaren drivers for the title, but he is now uncertain if he has the performance to gain positions in Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no pace, so it doesn\u2019t matter what I do in Turn 1, even if I jump two cars they will get me later in the race,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just need to stay out of trouble and do my own race but every lap I did in the long run has been weak compared to the cars ahead of me.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019ll just try and follow and see what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Verstappen and Norris finish the race where they start, Verstappen will be 41 points shy of Norris with just four rounds remaining.<\/p>\n
Asked if his Red Bull was more difficult to drive this weekend in Mexico than it had been at recent races, he added: \u201cYeah, you summed it up, there\u2019s not much more to say.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just been very difficult. We tried a lot of stuff, not a lack of trying, but yeah it\u2019s been not great, let\u2019s say it like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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