Verstappen hails positive day despite tyre struggles

Max Verstappen hailed a "positive day" of Formula 1 practice running for Red Bull in Spain as it debuted a number of updates on the RB14 car despite struggling at times with Pirelli's modified tyres.

Pirelli was allowed to reduce the tread of its tyres by 0.4 mm to prevent overheating on the new surface at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, only for a number of drivers to struggle for grip at times and go off the circuit.

Verstappen ended the day third-fastest, just two-tenths of a second behind Lewis Hamilton at the head of the field, and was generally pleased with how his sessions had gone.

"I think it was a positive day," Verstappen said. "The car has been working quite well. Of course you always want to improve it but not too many issues. Especially in the long run we had a very good balance, and that’s always good.

"[The Supersoft] is not a really nice tyre on this track, somehow. The front or rear doesn’t seem to work well so I think everyone will prefer the Soft tyre.

"But even in the long run the Supersoft for me was behaving quite well, but it is more tricky. I was improving quite a little bit but that was also because I stopped quite early on my soft tyre run.

"It doesn’t seem like it’s a really good tyre for a single timed lap, the Supersoft, but maybe it changes for tomorrow."