Christian Horner reckons Red Bull “threw the kitchen sink” at improving its RB20 Formula 1 car in preparation for Qatar Grand Prix qualifying, which helped Max Verstappen seal pole position.

Verstappen praised the team for its turnaround in fortunes, having managed only sixth on the grid for the sprint race – in which he finished eighth after a poor opening lap.

This prompted Red Bull to go for broke with its set-up when parc ferme opened up after the sprint, and Verstappen felt an immediate improvement in the balance – one that he’d dismissed as “terrible” earlier in the day.

Speaking to Sky F1, Horner said that Red Bull changed everything that it could to get the tyres to bite in the colder conditions, which it ultimately managed as Verstappen nudged ahead of George Russell in the order.

“It’s a great turnaround. I think the engineers and the team back in Milton Keynes have worked very hard,” Horner told Sky.

“They’ve got a good set-up on the car, Max has immediately felt [more confident] – his first comment was that it feels better. And then he’s just gone out and delivered in the most spectacular way.

“We pretty much threw the kitchen sink at it; pretty much everything you could change, we did change.

“You never know if it’s all going to come together in the balance. And it did, and he was able to really nail it. We really struggled yesterday, Turn 1, Turn 2, and particularly the last turn; a little bit at seven as well. And those corners suddenly came alive for us.

“That last lap, it was neck and neck with George going into that last turn and he nailed the last corner, and it was just good enough.”

Verstappen explained that his car being more “connected” had given him the confidence to push more in qualifying, and hadn’t expected to see such progress being made over the earlier sprint sessions.

He noted that the race would be another challenge entirely, and hopes that the new set-up might allow him to mitigate wear to the front-left tyre around the plethora of long-radius corners in Qatar.

“I didn’t expect that; well done to the team to give me a car that feels a bit more connected. Once the car is a bit more together, you can push also harder and it felt a lot better out there in qualifying for me. 

“We did change a bit on the car, but I never thought it would make such a swing in performance. So that’s promising. I hope it also lasts more in the race. 

“I don’t know that yet, but it just felt already a lot more stable over one lap, and that’s exactly what we need. It’s going to be a tough race physically, but I think also mainly on the tyres just making sure that you’re good on them. 

“The front left around here gets eaten up quite a lot. It’s all about managing that tomorrow. I hope that with the set-up we have on the car now, it will be a bit better.”

Photos from Qatar GP Sprint Race & Qualifying