Verstappen: Red Bull F1's advantage 'misleading' after Hamilton invalidation

The Dutchman topped both practice sessions for the Styrian Grand Prix.

In FP2, Hamilton had set a faster lap time than Verstappen but the seven-time champion’s 1m05.335s was deleted for track limits at Turn 10.

Given Hamilton’s pace, Verstappen expects it to be another “tight” battle for pole on Saturday.

“Yeah well I mean second practice Lewis was faster but his lap time got deleted so looks a bit different from what I think is shown at the moment,” Verstappen said. “Overall I think it has been quite good for us. A few things to look into but overall I’m quite happy with where the car is.

“If that’s possible already in FP2 I’m sure towards qualifying, well we have to see and wait what the weather will do, but overall yeah I think it will be again very tight.”

Sergio Perez couldn’t match the pace of his teammate, ending the afternoon session down in ninth place.

The Mexican remains unconcerned by his lack of pace and is confident of finding gains overnight heading into qualifying. 

“Yeah I am not concerned at all,” Perez added. “Obviously here finding a few tenths makes a huge difference so I think we are in the mix. Hopefully tomorrow come qualifying and we are able to put a great lap together in Q3.

“Track conditions were good. I think the track was improving as we went through. It will be interesting to see what happens overnight but most importantly I think from our side we just have to find a bit of fine-tuning. 

“We seem to have the same issues in practice where I am not so comfortable with the car. I went in one direction and it’s probably not the right one. I am not concerned at all. I do think we do have good pace, the long run pace seemed to be promising so if we are able to find a couple of tenths overnight then we are in the fight for tomorrow which is important.”