MADRID, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Max Verstappen ⁠rated his chances of overtaking in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix as almost nil and said he was counting ⁠on rivals suffering from higher tyre degradation to get ahead.

The four-time world champion, who qualified third ‌on Saturday for Red Bull, behindMcLaren's Lando Norris on pole position and Mercedes's championship leader Kimi Antonelli, also said drivers should have more input in track design.

Asked whether he reckoned he could challenge Norris, Verstappen replied: "It will be tough. I mean, even best case scenario and you're faster, you can't ​pass. There are no corners where you can pass so you need ⁠to rely on people degging (suffering tyre wear) very ⁠aggressively.

"The long runs (in practice) were very tough, a lot of deg for everyone, so that will probably be the key ⁠point ‌tomorrow. But even with that I need to still figure out a corner where to pass."

Mercedes's title contender George Russell suggested on Friday, half-joking, that thermal degradation might be so extreme -- with the signature 'La Monumental' banked curve ⁠really 'hurting' the tyres -- that a six-stop strategy might be necessary.

Antonelli, 66 points ​clear of Russell at the top ‌of the standings after 13 rounds, agreed tyre management would be critical at a track with a particularly ⁠long pitlane and ​smooth, high-grip asphalt with fast corners.

"We don't really know how the hard tyre is, how resilient it is, so tomorrow we might have two stops, three stops, we'll see," said the Italian.

"But the key is expecting that first thing is try and manage (the tyres) as ⁠much (as possible) without giving up too much time."

NORRIS NEEDS TO DO HIS ​HOMEWORK

Norris missed Friday's second practice after McLaren needed to change his car's gearbox and said he had yet to do many laps with a high fuel load.

"I've got to do my homework, got to see what (teammate) Oscar (Piastri) did yesterday, see what we ⁠can prepare for," said the Briton. "I also lost that little indication of what the degradation will be like tomorrow, this chance of high degradation.

"You want certainly a little bit of a feeling of how it degrades, what corners really to save, all those little things, you want those feelings from the car and at the minute I don't have any of ​them."

Verstappen suggested drivers could have helped during the design stage to ensure there were ⁠overtaking opportunities.

"Overall, the event itself is very cool. I mean, yes, they’ve done a great job. Also how quick, I think, ​they made the track available, the information that was shared for the ‌simulator. So, from that sense, I think, yeah, it was ​very good," said the Dutch driver.

"But in terms of if you want to have better racing, overtaking, I think there can be a few corners that can be changed."

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; editing by Clare Fallon)