ORANGE SQUASH

Norris close to squeezing out Verstappen in title battle as Max struggles SHARD

- BY DANIEL MOXON

MAX VERSTAPPEN admitted his Red Bull car has a big problem which could rule him out of the title fight.

The Dutchman managed just fourth in yesterday's Sprint race, finishing one place behind championship leader Lando Norris.

He must beat the Brit in today's Grand Prix if he is to avoid being eliminated from title contention.

But Verstappen, has 28, hated every second behind the wheel of his "bouncing" Red Bull which has been particularly unpleasant to drive in Qatar.

He said: "It's been difficult so far.

"We need to work on it, try to get rid of the bouncing, jumping, understeer in general in the long corners. That's still a big problem."

Yuki Tsunoda qualified had ahead of Verstappen (right) for the first time as his team-mate and quickly moved aside to let the Dutchman through.