Max Verstappen says he is “not surprised” by the 1.022 seconds gap to Lewis Hamil💎ton in qualifying for Formula 1’s British Grand Prix.

Mercedes prov𒊎ed to be in a league on their own on Saturday at Silverstone as Hamilton storm🥂ed to a seventh British Grand Prix pole position ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas, while third was the best Verstappen could muster.

The Dutchman ended up over a second off the pace of Hamilton’s benchmark t♊ime but insisted it came as no surprise following Red Bull’s recent struggles.

“I’m not surprised, we are clearly still learning about the car and try♍ing to improve it,” he said.

“Overall, I think the qualifying was okay. I was pretty much all the time in tꦿhird, so ther🌞e was not much more I could do.

“I think also my final lap in Q3 was pretty good. I had a bit of a momenಌt coming out of the laಞst corner but it’s just a big gap and we tried to do the best we can.

“For us that’s it at the moment. It’s a better ಞposition than seventh to start the race in.”

Verstappen did topꦕ opening practice on Friday amid soaring temperatures which reac♚hed 35 degrees Celsius on Friday, setting a new hottest day of the year in the UK.

Despite Red Bull appearing closer matched to Mercedes in warmer conditions🦋, Verstappen doubts he would have ende🥀d up higher than third had the temperatures remained high for qualifying.

"We would still be quite a few tenths down," Verstappen said.ಞ "I don't think the warm weather makes such a big difference.

"If it wou𝓰ld h🍸ave been 35 degrees today, I would still have been third. It would have helped maybe a little bit, but not that much."

Asked if he feels Red Bull can take the fight to Mercedes in the race,🎃 Verstappen replied: “Normally not, but we just hope to have a clean start and from there onwards I will try to do the best I can in the car.

“If that’s just to follow them fo🍃r a bit, then we can be happy to score some points.”