Max Verstappen hopes the rain stays away as a new track surface leaves conditions resembling an ice rink at the Turkish Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver was fastest in both sessions at Istanbul Park on Friday, but that term was somewhat misleading with lap times several seconds slower than the last time Formula 1 visited in 2011.

Ultimately, the initial issues with wheelspin even on the straights during the morning began to ease as grip levels improved slightly in the afternoon, allowing Verstappen to lap nearly seven seconds faster than his FP1 time.

But the increased chance of a wet qualifying and, particularly, a wet race has Verstappen's attention.

“Well, it can’t get any worse basically, at the start in FP1,” he said of the track conditions. “We’re still miles off, it’s like driving on ice. Worse than Portimao by far. At the end of the day, it’s the same for everyone so we just have to adapt to it. 

“I hope it’s not going to rain as it will be like proper driving on ice so maybe we will have to switch to spikes or something on the tyres, that would be quite interesting so let’s see.”

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Drivers did get a small glimpse at what a damp track would be like after officials washed the surface before FP1, leaving Turn 1 nearly unpassable in a clean manner.

“Let’s not do that again," Verstappen said of cleaning the track. "We will talk about it in general why the tarmac is so slippery.

"I think we’re still like five seconds off of what we should do. Like I said, same for everyone and we will deal with it.”

As for teammate Alex Albon, he was among the first to find more grip in the afternoon before ultimately ending the session a second behind Verstappen in fifth.

And he thinks the unique track conditions will require a change in approach on Saturday.

“It’s bad,” the Red Bull driver stated. “I don’t know what we are going to do in qualifying.

"I don’t know if everyone’s going to go out in the green light and we all just drive around on softs the whole session with a flood of fuel in to do a race run. That’s what it feels like everybody is going to be doing.”