Not ideal day for Red Bull after persisting engine issues on the opening day

After an engine-related issue cut his day short, reigning world champion Max Verstappen claims that he will need an uninterrupted third practice to fine-tune his setup before the action gets serious in qualifying.

Championship leader Max Verstappen complained about a lack of power in the opening one-hour practice, with the issue ending his session prematurely, leaving him playing catch up in FP2.

The Dutch driver only completed four laps in the extended second practice before the same issue arose which forced him to return to the garage at a reduced speed. Red Bull quickly realized that the issue was too serious to fix during the session which meant that Verstappen's day was cut short after just four laps.

“Not an ideal Friday here in Mexico. We are investigating a power unit issue further, and unfortunately this cut our day short. We never really got a good run, especially in FP2, where I only did four laps.

"There is not much to read in to or say about the sessions today. Hopefully we are able to make some progress overnight and be in a good position for FP3 and Qualifying tomorrow."

His team-mate Sergio Perez finished tenth in the opening sixty-minute session before moving up the order by a spot in the second practice. The home hero delivered a negative assessment after the opening day, claiming that his car was not competitive through the low-speed corners of the Hermanos Rodriguez track.

“It is not feeling great, we have a few issues with the ride in the low speed. We still have some work to do, we are still really far from the top. The crowd is amazing here and I wish we were a little bit more competitive for them, but that is not the case unfortunately.

"You never know, tomorrow with the track changing anything can really happen. I hope for qualifying we are able to extract more from the car and give them something to really cheer about."