Although it is not what they were aiming for, both Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers managed to get into the top 3 of the grid on Sunday, with Sergio Perez set to start from the front row on P2 and Max Verstappen right behind him in P3.

It's the second straight weekend where the Dutchman has been beaten by the Mexican in a qualifying session as he continues to struggle to find the perfect balance on a Saturday afternoon in 2022.

The reigning world champion declared that it was not the best performance possible for a qualifying session aboard his RB18, and there is room for improvement.

“You always take quite a lot of risk and push the car to the limit on a street circuit, but you also have to be happy with the balance of the car and I didn’t have that today. It was difficult to find a good balance here, which means we’re lacking consistency in how you approach your lap,” said the Dutchman.

“There’s still quite a bit of work to do. Looking ahead to tomorrow, the run into turn one is very short but it’s a long race, let’s see what we can do. Ferrari put in some really quick laps and it looks like they have a good pace, let’s hope we can put some good pressure on them.”

But Verstappen is not letting the mood get low, he affirms that he is calm and focused on a good result tomorrow.

“Past races in Baku have shown that a lot of things can happen, we just need to stay calm and focus on having a good race tomorrow.”