Verstappen drives damaged Red Bull on to Silverstone second row

The series leader and three-time champion spun off and ran through a gravel trap at Copse during the first session, an incident which cost him substantial downforce.

"It was a lot," he said.

"We got it down a little bit, but it was still a lot. I had to take to the gravel, which ripped the floor apart.

"We lost quite a few bits on the car and even though the team did a great job trying to recover things, it basically ruined our qualifying. I was happy to be in P3 before that with the damage we had so P4 at the end is a positive surprise.

"A few bits were missing or hanging and flapping. We cut them off and tried to optimise the losses. After that, we were just really fighting with the balance of the car."

He added: "Of course, we’d have liked to start first, but at least we now can drive an attacking race and see if we can put pressure on them at the front. We are still in it and can have a go."

His Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez also went off at Copse in Q1, but beached his car in the gravel and could not continue. It was his third Q1 flop in the last six races and left him under pressure again.

"It’s very frustrating," said Perez, who will be 19th on the grid. "I let my whole team down. I was the first one, or one of the first ones, to go onto slick tyres and at that point I basically needed all the temperature I could get to the tyre.

"I shifted down, I locked up the rear axle, which put me out of the track. I ended up trying to go to keep it straight, but I just lost the car. The tyres were super-cold and I got caught out with the conditions."