Verstappen: C6 tires "fell away" in qualifying defeat to Piastri

Max Verstappen revealed that the C6 compound tires "fell away" from him on his final qualifying lap, leading to his pole position defeat to Oscar Piastri at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Following a strong performance in third practice, where Verstappen was identified as a potential contender against McLaren, he demonstrated his pace in qualifying.

Verstappen was on provisional pole before the final qualifying runs.

However, Verstappen struggled to manage the extremely soft C6 tires, questioning if the compound was suitable for Imola.

"Yeah, I think everything was going really well," Verstappen stated. "Just the softest compound, it's very difficult to keep them alive around the lap. So yeah, sector one was good.

"And then the tyres again fell away from me from there onwards, like tiny, tiny margins. But, it was cool, but then you could see George, he set his lap on a medium.

"So, yeah, maybe they [the C6 tyres] were a bit too soft for this track, and for us, at least, it was a bit more difficult to extract the most out of it.

"I felt a bit happier on the medium, but the race is tomorrow. That's where you score the points, of course, so that's what we have to focus on. But I do think that today was a very good day for us."

Verstappen will start alongside Piastri on the front row, with Lando Norris in fourth. Mclaren has shown consistent strong race pace, making Verstappen uncertain about his chances of winning.

"Let's see. Last race was not really a fight," Verstappen added. "So I hope that we just pick up a bit of pace, have a bit more of a stable car, and then hopefully we can look after our tyres a bit better."