Max Verstappen admitted his Red Bull car has a big problem which could rule him out of the title fight. The Dutchman managed just fourth in Saturday’s Sprint race, finishing one place behind championship leader Lando Norris. He must beat the Brit in Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix if he is to avoid being eliminated from title contention.

But Verstappen, 28, has hated every second behind the wheel of his “bouncing” Red Bull which has been particularly unpleasant to drive. He said: “It’s been difficult so far. We need to work on it, try to get rid of the bouncing, jumping, understeer in general in the long corners. That’s still a big problem.”

Yuki Tsunoda had qualified ahead of Verstappen for the first time as his team-mate and quickly moved aside to let the Dutchman through. He also got past Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin early on but destroyed his tyres with an early look at getting past Norris.

Verstappen said: “The start was good and the first three laps, I just pushed a bit more compared to the guys ahead to try to have an opportunity, knowing that passing was tough. But after that, you get into the same trouble. The more the tyres wear, the more you feel those kinds of issues and that prevented us from really following them.”

Oscar Piastri rediscovered his best form at exactly the right time, winning the Sprint race in Qatar for the third year in a row. It was his first victory in any form since the Dutch Grand Prix in late August and knows he needs to repeat the trick to give himself the best chance of a final-day comeback.

The Aussie, 24, said: “It’s been a good weekend so far. Everything went smoothly in the Sprint so I’m happy with how it has been. I just need to keep it rolling.”

It was a miserable day for Ferrari as Lewis Hamilton made no real progress from a pit lane start and Charles Leclerc slipped from ninth on the grid to finish 13th. Hamilton said: “We started from the pit lane because we wanted to explore and make some changes.

“We implemented those changes and the car was really in the wrong direction and very, very difficult for whatever reason, clearly for both of us. We just don’t have any stability… it’s a fight like you wouldn’t believe.”

Leclerc agreed, adding: “The feeling has changed completely and I don’t really know where it is coming from. The first lap, I was struggling to keep the car on track, lost four or five positions and then still made lots of mistakes because it was extremely difficult to drive.”

Meanwhile, Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll has told team staff that Christian Horner will not be joining any time soon. The former Red Bull chief has been heavily linked with the Silverstone-based squad but workers were told at the factory this week that a deal for Horner to join the project is “not happening”.