Overtaking at the Madring? Not a chance, says Verstappen

MADRID, Sept 12 - Max Verstappen rated his chances of overtaking as almost nil in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix and said he was counting on rivals suffering from higher tyre degradation to get ahead.

The four-time world champion qualified third on Saturday for Red Bull, behind McLaren's Lando Norris on pole position and Mercedes's championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

Asked whether he reckoned he could challenge Norris, Verstappen replied: "It will be tough. I mean, even best case scenario and you're faster, you can't pass. There are no corners where you can pass so you need to rely on people degging (suffering tyre wear) very aggressively.

"The long runs (in practice) were very tough, a lot of deg for everyone, so that will probably be the key point tomorrow. But even with that I need to still figure out a corner where to pass."

Mercedes's title contender George Russell suggested on Friday, half-joking, that thermal degradation might be so extreme -- with the signature 'La Monumental' banked curve really 'hurting' the tyres -- that a six-stop strategy might be necessary.

Antonelli, 66 points clear of Russell at the top of the standings after 13 rounds, agreed tyre management would be critical at a track with a particularly long pitlane and smooth, high-grip asphalt with fast corners.

"We don't really know how the hard tyre is, how resilient it is, so tomorrow we might have two stops, three stops, we'll see," said the Italian.

"But the key is expecting that first thing is try and manage (the tyres) as much (as possible) without giving up too much time."

Norris missed Friday's second practice after McLaren needed to change his car's gearbox and said he had yet to do many laps with a high fuel load.

"I've got to do my homework, got to see what (teammate) Oscar (Piastri) did yesterday, see what we can prepare for," said the Briton. "I also lost that little indication of what the degradation will be like tomorrow, this chance of high degradation.

"You want certainly a little bit of a feeling of how it degrades, what corners really to save, all those little things, you want those feelings from the car and at the minute I don't have any of them." REUTERS