Verstappen hails "good start" despite "hit and miss" qualifying

Max Verstappen has described his qualifying session as "hit and miss" after missing out on pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix to Charles Leclerc.

The reigning world champion was a clear favourite heading into the weekend and backed the tag up with a show of ominous pace in FP3, but Leclerc overhauled the gap to finish fastest by 0.123secs.

Verstappen will line up second, with the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz behind in third.

Asked if he had anything left to give in qualifying, the Dutchman conceded: "It is a bit difficult to tell. It was a bit hit and miss.

"Q2 seemed quite good and then Q3 was a bit of a struggle to get the balance together.

"Nevertheless, it was alright. We have a good car, a good racecar as well which at the end of the day is the most important, it was a good day overall.

"It is a good start to the new era."

F1's new generation promised to shake up the pecking order and create more excitement with new cars to promote closer racing.

In qualifying, the order was much changed but asked how the RB18 felt in qualifying trim, Verstappen said: "Not fantastic but not too bad, otherwise, you cannot be in this position. There are a few things to look into and I will try to do better next time.

"You want to be good in qualifying, of course, but you really want to make sure your car is working for the race because your tyres are struggling more there and it is a bit different to some other tracks.

"It was nice, a really close battle with Carlos and Charles, of course, at the end. They did a really good job over the winter and hopefully, it will be an exciting race."

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