Verstappen blames lack of grip for poor practice performance

Following a difficult opening day at the Yas Marina Circuit, reigning world champion Max Verstappen insisted that the general lack of grip has been the main reason for his poor performance.

Although he looked fairly competitive in the first one-hour practice at Singapore, Max Verstappen seemingly did not enjoy his car in the second session.

The Dutch driver found himself down in P15 in FP2, after racking up a total of 24 laps.

Reflecting on his day, the championship leader said that his car behaved better on the high kerbs and bumps of the Yas Marina Circuit, but a general lack of grip meant that he suffered from severe sliding.

“Today was difficult. We didn’t have the grip that we would have liked on the tyres, so I felt like we were sliding a lot more than usual. This caused us particular issues in FP2, which wasn’t really a positive session for us.

“We haven’t so much been struggling with the bumps and the kerbs, but it was more about the general grip of the tyres. We are going to have to go back and analyse the data and see what we can do to optimise the performance with the car and the tyres so we can improve ahead of qualifying,” noted the Dutchman.

His team-mate Sergio Perez looked quicker in the second sixty-minute practice session, ending up eighth quickest.

The Mexican was delighted with the setup changes between the first and second session, but he has revealed that Red Bull have been suprised by their lack of pace.

“I think we improved a little bit from FP1, but we are still lacking quite a lot of balance. It is quite difficult out there to put a lap together and it’s not looking great at the moment.

“Our performance has taken us a little by surprise so we have some work to do overnight because we are quite far off.

“We are nearly a second off the pace, so we need quite a big change to come through. We will see what we are able to do, it could be quite a tough weekend but we will work hard to ensure we can compete.”