Max Verstappen isn't ruing Red Bull's decision to take a grid penalty despite his strong pace in Russian Grand Prix practice.

The Dutchman will take a five-place grid drop after introducing a new Honda ICE at Sochi, with the anticipation of being more competitive at the next race in Japan.

But perhaps with the extra power in hand, Max would end practice three-tenths clear of Charles Leclerc's Ferrari at the top of the timesheets.

“No, not at all. I think if you are quick you can still pass people but it’s always difficult to judge when to take a penalty," he said via Crash.net on if there were any regrets.

“If I would have thought that Singapore would be that difficult you might have taken it there, it’s just a question mark as to what went wrong there. So far so good, it’s only five places so it’s not that bad.

“We'll take the penalty after qualifying of course, we'll still do our normal qualifying. I'm not too disappointed about the penalty because you can overtake around here. If you are fast, you will get to the front.”

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What makes Verstappen's practice pace all the more surprising is how his Red Bull was able to keep up with Ferrari in the power-sensitive areas f the track.

“It was a bit of a weird weekend in Singapore with what went wrong, so we came here and the car is working very well,” he continued.

“The last sector has been very good, but even the first one, you have the long straight. Turn 3 is flat out and basically also a straight and we are still competitive. So it was a positive day.

“We tried quite a few things with the car and it seems to work. The key was just to follow your own programme and try to get the best out of the car and I think today that worked pretty well.”