Max Verstappen's surprise pole position at the Qatar Grand Prix marked a remarkable turnaround for Red Bull, following a challenging Sprint race performance where he finished eighth.

The four-time world champion secured pole by a margin of 0.055s ahead of George Russell, despite earlier struggles that left him unable to compete with Nico Hulkenberg in the Sprint race.

"It couldn't have been worse, so we just looked at it," Verstappen explained. "We decided to try a different direction with the car setup, and it worked."

The transformation was supported by extensive analysis from the factory team and simulator work running in the background. The adjustments resulted in significant improvements to the car's handling characteristics, particularly in corner entry and mid-corner performance.

"I felt it straight away from lap one that it all just felt a bit more consistent. That's exactly what we needed to be a bit more competitive," Verstappen said.

Despite the qualifying success, Verstappen remains cautious about race day performance. While acknowledging the improvement in qualifying pace, he expressed uncertainty about maintaining competitive advantage throughout the full race distance.

"It's still a bit of a question mark," he admitted. "I felt like we were quite far off in the Sprint. This is great, to be on pole, but I'm not sure yet if it's going to be enough to really be the outright fastest, but we'll find out tomorrow."

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