Max Verstappen said he was plagued by more problems with his car after being beaten to pole position by team mate Daniel Ricciardo in Mexico.

“The whole qualifying was crap.” said Verstappen, who was fastest in Q1 and after the first run in Q3 before losing out to Ricciardo. “Again the same problem as in FP2. Engine braking not like I wanted, just rear locking the car

“We tried to make the best of it. I thought it was going to be enough with the problems we had. But it’s still good to be second, we’ll see tomorrow.”

Verstappen, who was also quickest in all three practice sessions, vowed to “drive around” the problems if they recur in tomorrow’s race.

Daniel Ricciardo surprised Verstappen by beating him to pole position by two-hundredths of a second, leading Red Bull’s first front row lock-out since the 2013 United States Grand Prix.

“I knew it was there somewhere,” he said. “We hadn’t had the cleanest run through practice and I just knew getting clean laps together would be crucial as always.

“I knew the pace was in the car. Obviously Max showed that all weekend from start to finish. I knew we could put a clean lap together at the end. I still wasn’t convinced it was the cleanest.”

Verstappen missed out on the first pole position of his career while Ricciardo took his third.

“Obviously Monaco is the only place I’ve ever done this,” said Ricciardo. “I believe it was super-close with Max, a few hundredths or thousandths.

“So a shout-out to the team. I don’t know the last time Red Bull got a one-two in qualifying so that’s pretty cool.”

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2018 F1 season