Red Bull’s pace not made ‘bittersweet’ by grid penalty - Verstappen

Max Verstappen insists Red Bull’s promising Friday practice pace at the Russian Grand Prix has not been made “bittersweet” by his engine-related grid penalty.

All four Honda-powered cars have taken new V6 engines in Sochi this weekend, prompting five-place grid penalties for the Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Alexander Albon and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly, with Daniil Kvyat set to start his home race from the back of the grid.

Verstappen set the pace on Friday by ending second practice quickest on 1m33.162s, 0.335s clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Asked if he found Red Bull’s pace bittersweet given his looming grid penalty, Verstappen replied: “No not at all. I think if you are quick you can still pass people but it’s always difficult to judge to take a penalty.

“If I would have thought that Singapore would be that difficult you might have taken it there, it’s just a question mark as to what went wrong there. So far so good, it’s only five places so it’s not that bad.

“We'll take the penalty after qualifying of course. We'll of course still do our normal qualifying. I'm not too disappointed about the penalty. You can overtake around here. If you are fast, you will get to the front.”

Verstappen admits he still does not understand why Red Bull struggled for pace in Singapore but has performed well so far at Sochi.

“It was a bit of a weird weekend in Singapore with what went wrong, so we came here and the car is working very well,” he said.

“The last sector has been very good, but even the first one, you have the long straight. Turn 3 is flat out and basically also a straight and we are still competitive. So it was a positive day.

“We tried quite a few things with the car and it seems to work. The key was just to follow your own programme and try to get the best out of the car and I think today that worked pretty well.”