Max Verstappen has dismissed concerns that he might consider leaving Red Bull, after last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix proved to be a turbulent day for the team.

With that same scenario playing out in the days ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix — the McLaren duo again trading times atop the leaderboard while Verstappen sounded the alarm about the RB21 being “too slow” — many wondered if the Red Bull driver would still find a way to take pole position in the desert.

Four-time world champion Verstappen was in irrepressible form under the floodlights on the high-speed Jeddah Corniche Circuit, grabbing the front of the grid with a 1min 27.294sec lap, one hundredth of a second quicker than Piastri.