Max Verstappen admits there wasn’t much to read into Friday’s practice times at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman was a solid third-fastest in the dry afternoon session in Sao Paulo, this after opting not to set a time in the wet morning.
While it would normally be encouraging for the Red Bull driver to finish just over a tenth behind the two Ferrari’s, Verstappen expects everything to change for the weekend.
“It was a bit of a messy day with the weather and I think it’s not really representative with the temperatures,” he said.
Also Read:
- Alonso picks Verstappen as the best in F1: ‘He’s always in attack mode’
- Albon was worried about the ‘big boys’ after Red Bull call up
“We just have to look at the positives that the car is working well. Of course, there are always things you can improve but it’s a positive start.
“We’ll start over again tomorrow because the weather will be different. I can’t really tell where we are exactly but also I don’t really think it matters a lot because tomorrow will be different.”
As for teammate Alex Albon, he had a tricky day despite topping the drying first practice as a crash at the end of that session appeared to put him on the back foot, only claiming P8 in the afternoon.
“Just a cold track obviously and you just tip-toe around and lose brake temperature, so that’s pretty much what happened,” Albon said of the off at Juncao as he and the other top six drivers attempted a run on slicks.
“I went to brake but there was nothing there. If you do it again it’s like you almost have to push harder, it’s not easy to tell yourself but it’s one of those things and it happened on the worst part of the track.”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner tried to take some pressure off his driver though, admitting the conditions were still too damp.
“I think today you can’t put on Alex’s account,” he claimed. “Maybe we were a little bit too optimistic getting out there trying to get him laps in on a track that was still pretty damp in the middle sector.
“And Max he had a moment at Turn 1 and Turn 2, there were other cars as well running wide, so I don’t think today’s [accident], we can blame that on Alex.
“He’s had a few little incidents this year, thankfully they’ve all been on Fridays and Saturday mornings, and when it’s come to it in qualifying and the race he’s absolutely delivered.”