Max Verstappen unhappy after US GP P2: 'No need to smile and be super happy'

Max Verstappen qualified second for the United States Grand Prix and still left the Circuit of the Americas sounding thoroughly unimpressed. “No need to smile and be super happy about it,” the Red Bull driver said after finishing 0.179 seconds behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who took pole.

The frustration wasn’t really about the result on paper. It was about the feeling. Verstappen said his car felt genuinely good through Q1 and Q2 — on used tyres, no less — but went strangely dead the moment he bolted on a fresh set in the final shootout.

“Q1 and Q2 I felt really good. I did my first lap in Q2 just on a used set,” he explained. “So when I went to Q3, I had high hopes, but unfortunately, it just felt bad. Like I just didn’t really have the grip that I wanted.”

No need to then smile and be super happy about it.

He pointed to a loss of rear grip through the final sector as the specific cost, and he refused to pin it on the strengthening wind. “Even with that it’s not an excuse,” he said. He was equally dismissive of the tyre-switch theory, noting he has run a lean qualifying before without issue.

A good result that doesn’t feel like one

Second place still put Verstappen on the front row, with teammate Isack Hadjar only 0.036 seconds behind him in third — Hadjar’s best qualifying to date. But for a driver chasing a third straight win after Malaysia and Singapore, the odd dead-spot in Q3 clearly rankles because it has no explanation.

“It’s very odd of course that you have, let’s say, the best feeling on a used set,” he said. “It’s something that we have to look at.”

Verstappen has been the circuit’s loudest critic all weekend, calling the COTA bumps “unacceptable” and “out of control.” From the front row he’ll now attack Antonelli up the hill into Turn 1 — right where the worst of those bumps sit — sitting fourth in the standings on 221 points.