Verstappen's practice pace compromised by damaged floor

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Max Verstappen suffered damage to the floor of his RB14 during Friday's free practice sessions for the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix, it has emerged.

The Dutch driver had been third fastest in the morning, but slipped to fifth place on the times sheets after lunch. His best time was on ultrasofts, while Red Bull team mate Daniel Ricciardo was able to go quicker on the supersoft compound.

Verstappen said afterwards that his drop-off in pace had been due to damage sustained by the floor of his car.

"We had a damaged floor," he confirmed. "Something broke off the inside of the floor.

"My second practice session I had to run with a floor that was a little bit cut or modified, let’s say that,” he said, adding that the part would be replaced overnight and have no lasting impact.

“It was an old floor, so we will put on a new one tomorrow," he said. "But today we had to be a bit limited on that which definitely compromised the downforce of my car.

"I don’t think it was a perfect day," he said, summing up the two 90-minute sessions at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. "There is still room for improvement.

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"We know that we lose quite a bit of time on the straights [compared to Ferrari and Mercedes]," he explained. "And even though there is a third DRS zone it is still a bit too much. Still some work [to do].

"We are chasing the balance a bit," he admitted. "We never really found the sweet spot yet. There’s work to do tonight.

"I don't think it's the tyres, it's the car balance we were not happy with," he elaborated. "If we find the right car balance, then the tyres will work as well. We just need to try to find a better set-up."

Verstappen also had a number of minor mishaps that saw him run wide during practice - but he was far from alone in that.

Several drivers struggled with the yellow 'sausage' kerbs on Friday, including Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly who broke his front left suspension and caused a brief red flag stoppage in FP2.

Verstappen didn't think that the damage to his own car had resulted from a run-in with one of the kerbs.

"It's not from the outside sausage kerb, it's from the inside," he said. "I guess it was just vibrations of whatever.

"These kerbs have been very aggressive over the past three years," Verstappen commented. "It’s far from ideal and everyone is trying to avoid them.

"Of course, they can damage a front wing. But if they put a wall instead of a kerb, you’d hit the wall. So it’s simple: don’t touch it!"

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.