Verstappen remains confident despite FP2 issues

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Max Verstappen insisted that he wasn't worried despite being unable to match the pace of his Mercedes rivals in Friday afternoon's practice session at the Hungaroring ahead of this weekend's Hungarian GP.

Verstappen had been quickest in the morning but dropped almost three tenths behind Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in the hotter post-lunch conditions.

The Dutch driver complained of oversteer issues and struggled to find the ideal balance, while his team mate Sergio Perez was having contrasting issues with understeer.

Read also: Bottas and Hamilton on top in Hungary second practice

“Just a few adjustments we were trying from FP1 to FP2 so just need to look into which things worked and which things didn’t,” Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 after the end of the second session.

"The track was also very hot so it’s never easy like that," he added. He said that the team would work overnight to find improvements, "especially over one lap but also in the long run.

"The track was very hot today," Verstappen pointed out. “It’s just in general not an easy day with track temperatures like this so we’ll analyse everything.

"A lot of things to look into, but nothing shocking," he stated. "Nothing too big to overcome.

"It looks like there’s a bit of rain coming [on Saturday], so that should make things interesting and I’m looking forward to it.”

Meanwhile, Perez admitted he was "not fully comfortable with the car" after finishing fifth fastest in the afternoon, an improvement from eighth in the morning.

“We’ve made good steps from not expecting these kind of conditions, so just reading conditions better and getting a better lap," he offered. "Traffic was critical on my lap as well.

“The car felt good over the longer and shorter runs today. I think there’s definitely time to be found.

"With the weather conditions predicted to change over the weekend, there is a bit of an unknown, it may benefit some more than others so we will have to wait and see what happens.

"I think there’s plenty to play for tomorrow still, I’m looking forward to it," he concluded. "We’ve got a pretty good idea of which steps we have to take, so I’m optimistic for the rest of the weekend.

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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.