Max Verstappen said he could "forget about" winning the world championship after a chastening Saturday at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver qualified 16th for Sunday's main race after finishing fourth in the sprint earlier on Saturday while McLaren's Lando Norris won.

The sprint result extended Norris' lead over Verstappen to 39 points with four races to go.

Verstappen is likely to lose a further significant amount of points to Norris unless the Briton, who qualified on pole position, hits trouble in the grand prix on Sunday.

Asked for his feelings on the championship after qualifying, the Dutchman said: "I can forget about that. Yes, for sure."

Verstappen had emerged as a title contender after a remarkable run of form saw him reduce then championship leader Oscar Piastri's advantage by 64 points with three wins and a second place in four races in Italy, Azerbaijan, Singapore and the United States.

But a victory by Norris in Mexico last time out stalled Verstappen's momentum and the Brazil race has proved a difficult experience for Red Bull.

Four-time world champion Verstappen qualified sixth for the sprint, in which he gained two places by passing Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin at the start and moving up a position when Piastri crashed.

Afterwards, he complained of a lack of grip in the car, and the changes Red Bull made in an attempt to improve it made it worse. He was knocked out of qualifying after the first session.

It was the first time that had happened since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix - and that was as a result of engine problems.

Verstappen said he and the team did not know why the car was so uncompetitive.

"We need to understand what our problems are, first of all," he said. "It's not been good. It seems that we don't really understand why it's going that way.

"There was just no grip. I changed a few times the car and it didn't work. That's something that we need to figure out."

Red Bull even changed the floor on their car, reverting to an older specification to the one that had been influential in their step up in performance when it was introduced at the Italian Grand Prix in early September.

"It's two different floors, so clearly, that is not it," Verstappen said.