Team mate Max Verstappen, meanwhile, faced a tough start to the Sprint, having experienced some issues with his RB20 that saw him drop places during the first lap. While he managed to recover to score a point in P8, the world champion admitted that the problems could be tricky to solve ahead of qualifying and race day in Qatar.
“Lap 1 was pretty tough, [I was] just sliding everywhere,” Verstappen reflected. “I couldn’t keep the car on track really, so that was very tough and then after that I could get Pierre [Gasly] back, but after that there was no more pace.
AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from the F1 Sprint in Qatar
“[There was a] massive balance disconnect for me from entry into mid-corner so you can’t push the corner, you can’t carry the speed through the corner, and then of course also I ran out of front tyre, so it was very tough.
“I think it will be very difficult to also solve it for the rest of the weekend, but we’ll try to do our best.”