Both Red Bull drivers are hoping for overnight gains after an underwhelming Friday at the French Grand Prix.
As Ferrari led both sessions at Paul Ricard, world champion Max Verstappen found himself half a second down in third after complaining of understeer in his RB18.
Additionally, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were still making improvements on their second and third flying laps on the soft tyre, while the Dutchman was only able to get one representative time on the board during Practice 2.
“I think FP2 was a little bit more difficult for us,” Verstappen admitted afterwards. “We just didn’t really get the balance as we hoped for.
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“We were trying a few things with the cars. So we’ll have a look at it all for tomorrow and try to be closer to where we were today.”
Red Bull are also particularly keen to get the race setup right after conceding they went with the wrong “package” in Austria, enabling Leclerc to overtake for the win.
And on that front, there was mixed news…
“The long run is a bit better,” Verstappen affirmed. “But again the tyres are running really hot and it’s very difficult to judge where you are. We still have a little bit of work to do.
“Overall this track is very hard on the tyres anyway, so I think you cannot compare it to Austria.
“In general we all needed a few more laps to really have a good look at the long run.”
Across the garage, Sergio Perez endured a miserable Friday as a spin compromised his FP1 session and then he was only P10 in FP2, with the least laps of any driver.
It was a big spin for Checo ?
But the Red Bull man managed to keep it out of the barrier ??#FrenchGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/JkZLffzT1I
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 22, 2022
“We were basically having some delays,” the Mexican driver revealed. “A bit of an issue with one of the anti-roll bars but nothing major.
“It’s been a very short stint on that soft tyre, but it’s what it is and hopefully tomorrow we are able to put it all together and be in the fight.”
More concerning was a one-second gap between Perez’s best time and Verstappen in P3, with Checo reverting back to a line he’s used a lot since Canada.
“Obviously I’m not very comfortable at the moment with the car,” he said.
“There’s some good work and understanding to be done over tonight, and we will try to pick up the best pieces for tomorrow’s qualifying and race.”