Verstappen quietly confident with Red Bull race pace

Max Verstappen is certain he’s not lost any vital track time after sitting out almost all of the opening free practice session as he produced some eye-catching race pace in the evening session.

The Red Bull driver suffered an electrical issue during his installation lap in FP1 which forced him out of the opening session.

While playing catch-up on lost track time, Verstappen conceded he didn’t have the opportunity to complete a qualifying simulation but on his long runs felt strong compared to his F1 rivals. Verstappen ended FP2 fifth fastest for Red Bull with a best lap time of 1m 30.745s, almost a full second off of Kimi Raikkonen’s timesheet topper for Ferrari.

“It felt good, I saw some cars in front of me and I was catching them of course, that was good,” Verstappen said. “Of course, we still need to improve a bit as everyone will try and find some time so we’ll try to do the same.

“Even in my short runs in FP2, I was still chasing my balance as I didn’t do any running. Once we went into the longer runs, it actually felt pretty good.”

“We made some changes to the car. I was pretty happy with how the tyres were behaving on the car so that’s always positive looking forward to the race.”