Karun Chandhok says Max Verstappen had ‘no chance’ of Q3 after watching Japanese Grand Prix onboard

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Max Verstappen’s woes in 2026 have continued as Red Bull’s issues in high-speed corners cost him a place in Q3 at the Japanese Grand Prix.

It has not been a smooth weekend for the Dutchman at Suzuka. Verstappen ejected a journalist from his media session on Thursday over a spat he had at the end of 2025, and the drama continued on the track.

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The four-time champion struggled in Friday’s practice, with the RB22 suffering a lack of balance throughout the lap. Timo Glock felt Verstappen’s ‘hands are tied’ as the gap is ‘too big’ between him and the frontrunners, and that was made apparent in qualifying.

Verstappen was knocked out in Q2 in P11, getting outqualified by Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar and Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad. They went on to finish eighth and 10th, respectively, while the Dutchman lamented his issues over the radio.

Karun Chandhok noticed Max Verstappen struggling in high-speed corners that gave him ‘no chance’ of Q3 at Suzuka

Karun Chandhok assessed Verstappen’s final run in Q2 on Sky Sports F1 (28/03, 6:44 am). Watching his onboard, he saw the RB22 losing time through the high-speed corners, which ultimately cost him a place in the top 10.

“He said it was jumping around in the high-speed [corners]. Watch his head there as he goes through turn one, loads of understeer, struggling then, then snaps into an oversteer,” he said.

“Let’s go through the Esses and he’s just waiting on the front for a long time, and it eventually bites. There’s almost like a disconnect where he’s just not able to get the front and rear of the car talking to each other.

“He goes in, carrying the speed that he believes, the rear of the car steps out of line, has to correct it.

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“Then he’s just waiting because he’s gone in too fast and he’s now on this kerb, and all of that means he’s not in the right position he wants for the second part, has to have another correction there for the second apex.

“And you just compromise not only the speed and therefore lap time through Spoon, but also this run all the way up to 130R. So really frustrating time for Max in the high-speed corners.

“He’s just lost, as he said on the radio, so much time, I think through the Esses and Spoon and the high-speed stuff, he had no chance of getting himself into that top 10.”

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Max Verstappen describes his RB22 as ‘undrivable’ at Japanese Grand Prix

Red Bull are not a ‘happy camp’ in Japan as they look miles off the pace of the frontrunners. Verstappen felt his car was ‘undrivable’ when speaking to Rachel Brookes in the media pen.

“Well, the car never turns mid-corner, but at the same time this week, just oversteer a lot on entry, so yeah, just really difficult and unpredictable,” he admitted.

“We thought we fixed it a little bit in FP3. I mean, there’s still a lot of understeer in the car, but now in qualifying, it was again for me undrivable. So that’s something that we need to look at.

“Also, I’m driving with a different aero package this weekend, but it seems that that’s not working, so that’s also not very good.”

“We have problems that I cannot explain in detail here that we know are there. Sometimes it’s a bit worse than other times, and I think in qualifying it just came back to a point where it became undrivable.”