Verstappen delighted with his car’s long-run performance, Perez with gearbox issues
Despite finishing down in P14 in the second one-hour practice session, reigning champion Max Verstappen has been left hopeful of a strong result at Monza.
Verstappen ran the soft tyres in the opening session and wound up on top of the timing sheets in what was a very solid start to the weekend.
The Dutchman ended up down in P14 in the second session, but that was mainly down to the red flag caused by the Haas of Kevin Magnussen. Verstappen was not too disheartened though, indicating that Red Bull will be able to offer much more in the remainder of the weekend,
“We tried quite a few things today, FP1 felt decent and then FP2 we had good learnings from the long run. This track is aggressive on tyres, so it will be quite interesting how the track will evolve for the race as well.
“We were trying different setups in both sessions but couldn’t get it locked. At the end of the day, that is what practice is for and we want to learn a bit more about the car.
“We have a few good directions to take with the setup, we just need to tidy everything up a bit. It is going to be quite close between a few teams, and hopefully we will be right in that mix tomorrow in Qualifying.”
His team-mate Sergio Perez came out late in the second session after Red Bull elected to perform a precautionary gearbox change.
Although he finished down in P15 in FP2, he looked quick at times, and his fastest run was also disrupted. The Mexican indicated that his long performance was encouraging, but he is eager to find more pace in qualifying configuration.
“Unfortunately, we had to change the gearbox on my car between FP1 and FP2 as a precaution and the mechanics worked very hard to get my car ready as quickly as possible for the afternoon session. It is a big job to do in that timeframe and the work had to continue a little into the start of FP2.
“The delay meant we are a bit on the back foot and the session plan was very disrupted. We had a few mechanical issues because we had to put the car together quickly, so we just have to wait and see what the car is doing when we look at the data and then we will have a few things to get on top of.
“The long run probably looked a bit more promising and given that it was a mechanical issue it should be easier to sort out, but it means Saturday won’t be as simple as we hoped for. Hopefully tomorrow we are able to make a big step, especially over one lap and be able to fight in the race on Sunday,” concluded Perez.
