Red Bull broke curfew to work late on set-up changes

Red Bull Racing broke Friday's curfew at the Hungaroring to allow its crews to work late into the night and tweak the settings on the cars of Max Verstappen and Alex Albon.

No penalty has been issued to the Milton Keynes-based outfit by the Hungarian Grand Prix stewards as the transgression was one of two infringements to curfew rules allowed by a team during the season.

The FIA directive relating to the issue stipulated that "last night team personnel of the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team, who are associated with the operation of the car, were within the confines of the circuit during the eight hour period which commenced at 01:00 on 18 July, eleven hours before the scheduled start time of P3 and ends three hours before the scheduled start time of P3 at 09:00 on 18 July."

• Red Bull puzzled by Albon struggles in 'race of two halves'

While teams usually transgress a curfew to repair extensive damage or undertake significant changes, Red Bull says it only conducted set-up changes on the chassis of Verstappen and Albon.

"We had changes to make overnight following driver feedback so we used one of two permitted exemptions to the curfew to achieve this," said a team spokesperson, quoted by Motorsport.com.

"No dramas, just standard stuff that took a while."

After yesterday's running, Verstappen commented that his RP16 felt "unpredictable", with the team left with a lot of work on its hands.

This morning, the Dutchman concluded FP3 in sixth position, 0647s adrift from pace setter Valtteri Bottas, a gap the indeed reflects Red Bull's under-performance relative to Mercedes at a venue where it was seen as a favourite for top spoils.

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