Verstappen: 'We just need to fine tune a few things'

Despite both their cars finishing in the top three in Friday's free practice sessions for this weekend's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, there was nonetheless still some consternation in the Red Bull garage in Baku.

Sergio Perez had been quickest in FP1 with a 0.127s lead over Charles Leclerc, but the positions were reversed in the later session when Ferrari found more pace and Leclerc moved 0.248s ahead by the chequered flag.

“It was a good start to the day, but the second session didn’t go as well as we would have liked," the Mexican driver acknowledged after the end of the session.

• Read also: Leclerc ahead of Perez and Verstappen in Baku FP2

"We explored some things this afternoon and the results we wanted didn’t come, but we have collected good data with both tyres, as well as on the long runs.

"There is a lot to look over this evening and go through to hook it up for qualifying tomorrow," he continued. "Initially the long run data looks good for the race but there are a lot of details we need to look into more.

"I feel confident around this circuit," he added. "As always with the braking you will make some mistakes here and there, so I will keep my head down and focus on eradicating that.”

Max Verstappen was third fastest in both one-hour practices and appeared to be struggling to match the pace of both Leclerc and his team mate, just had been the case in the previous outing in Monaco.

However the Dutch driver remained positive about how things were going.

“Overall it was not a bad day, we look quite decent, we just need to fine tune a few things," he said. "I was a bit unlucky with my soft tyre runs in FP1 and FP2 - there were a few yellow flags so I had to back out.

"It seems like Ferrari is quite quick over one lap again," he admitted. "The long runs look a bit more even so that’s positive. The tyres seem to be working well after one lap which is good for a street circuit.

My long runs went well, I did a grand total of three laps," he noted with a wry laugh. "We should have enough info now to know how to play it with tyres this weekend.”

Verstappen lost time at the start of FP2 when the Red Bull mechanics addressed a problem with the DRS on his car seen in the earlier session, with the rear wing of the RB18 observed to be flexing to an alarming degree.

"We tried to fix the DRS after FP1, it seemed to be alright in FP2," Verstappen stated. But the flapping wing also attracted attention from Red Bull's rivals who suspected it was giving Verstappen a performance advantage.

Red Bull principal Christian Horner earlier told Sky Sports F1 that he understood some teams were already considering lodging protests about it with the stewards.

“I think they already have," he said when asked if he expected complaints from the other teams, while insisting that the oscillating wing wasn't actually helping them.

“It’s detrimental to performance,” he insisted. “It’s not enhancing of performance. But the guys are into it and hopefully we’ll get it resolved.”

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