Max Verstappen was frustrated by finishing fifth fastest in Friday afternoon practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, insisting it was not a true representation of the Red Bull's pace at Circuit Zandvoort.
The local hero was just 0.097s behind pace setter Lewis Hamilton in the morning, but dropped down the order after lunch and was 0.362s slower than Charles Leclerc in FP2 despite going quicker in overall pace.
Verstappen said that his runs had been affected by two red flags, including one for Hamilton's engine issue and another for Nikita Mazepin spinning into the gravel, and by traffic and running on used soft tyres after the resumption.
“I don’t think it looks very representative from our side on the short run, because already after one lap the tyres do drop off a bit," he explained to the media after the end of the session.
"I was improving on another push lap and then Mazepin had a spin otherwise I think we would be higher up, but it’s only Friday
"My lap was on a used set of tyres and the lap I had to abort I think would have been good enough for first," he pointed out. "You talk already a bit differently, but it’s never perfect.
"Nevertheless, we will work on a few things where we’re not entirely happy in the short run," he acknowledged. "But the long run looks competitive, so of course that is always very important.”
However Verstappen agreed with other drivers who have indicated that overtaking will be difficult at the circuit on Sunday, making a strong grid position an absolute premium.
"The starting position around here is very important,” he agreed. "It’s quite a short lap, a lot of fast corners.
"We’ll have a look what we can do for the short run to make it a bit better," he insisted. "We’ll always try to look into details what we can do better.”
He added that there were “just a few things we need to understand a bit better to get a bit more pace out of it” in time for final practice and qualifying on Saturday.
“We didn’t get that first lap, so we’re not quite sure what our ultimate pace is,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told Sky Sports F1. “But we’ve got a few issues to deal with.
“The car was a lot happier on the long run. Max was putting in some good times," he observed. "I think we’ve just got a bit of tidying up to do for the single lap, but of course, you’ve got to get a clean lap.”
Verstappen certainly seemed to be enjoying a power boost from the thousands of orange army fans in the grandstands cheering him on this weekend. "I was really enjoyable to see all of them in orange and having fun in the grandstands."
By contrast, his team mate Sergio Perez was struggling to keep up and ended FP2 in 12th place, a full second off Leclerc's top time.
"I wasn’t quite there or fully comfortable today," he admitted. "There are a couple of things on my side that we need to look at and make some decisions on in order to get the most out of the package.
"You really need the confidence going into the session to trust the car in order to push it," he added. "It’s very different to the other tracks we go to and with so many consecutive right-hand corners it’s a pretty unique and physical challenge."
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