Verstappen emerged as the quickest driver during the two first qualifying sessions. The Dutch talent displayed outstanding performance, being able to challenge Mercedes. Nevertheless, Verstappen did not manage to obtain the pole position, ending up third behind Valterri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton.

The Red Bull driver pointed out that he started understeering during his final attempt losing a bit of his pace.

“Today has been a good day and we can be happy to be on the second row of the grid. It was an interesting qualifying and after missing both practice sessions yesterday, it was busy for everyone today but overall I think it was positive.

“The car has been handling well and everything is a bit more stable. I felt quite comfortable but of course there are always a few balance areas you want to improve.

“In Q3 when it really mattered, I just started to understeer a bit too much and when it’s so cold, you grain the front tyres and just eat up the rubber so that cost me a bit of lap time.

Verstappen continued remarking that tyre strategies will play a crucial role tomorrow.

“I think we are closing in on Mercedes which is positive and what we’re working towards.

“We are usually closer to them on Sundays and tomorrow it will be even colder so it will be interesting to see what the tyres do and how they’re going to behave.

“It’s a fun track to drive and tomorrow is a bit of a question mark for everyone but hopefully it is going to be exciting.”

We had a decent qualifying and overall, I’m happy with P3 on the grid 💪 Looking forward to race on this nice track ✌️ #KeepPushing 🇩🇪 #EifelGP pic.twitter.com/k1p8b2I2i2

— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) October 10, 2020