Verstappen: Friday went 'really well' for Red Bull

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Max Verstappen declared himself happy with Red Bull's Friday performance, which saw the Dutch driver set the fastest time of the day at Yas Marina ahead of this weekend's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Verstappen missed FP1 so that junior driver Liam Lawson could take the wheel, but didn't seem to have missed out on track time when he soon moved to the top of the timing screens in the subsequent twilight session.

His best time of the way was 1:25.146s, a second and a half quicker than Lewis Hamilton managed in the daytime practice and more than three tenths ahead of George Russell in FP2.

Read also: Verstappen goes quickest, Russell second in Abu Dhabi second practice

“I’m really happy with how that session went, I think the car came together well," Verstappen said after the end of the day's track activity.

"In FP2 we tried a few things and in the long runs the car was working quite well, so I’m pretty happy with that," he added. "The temperature in FP2 was more representative of what it will be like during qualifying.

"Of course we’ll always try to refine a few things overnight, but we should be competitive in quali and the race," he predicted.

His team mate Sergio Perez was fourth quickest in FP1 but slipped to fifth in the later session that ended under the flood lights at Yas Marina.

"It was a very interesting two sessions," Perez commented. "Very different in the morning to the afternoon.

"This morning was a bit tricky with the temperatures, which means the afternoon session is the one we really have to pay attention to, because it will be the most representative for the weekend.

"We are just exploring the balance around the car, but generally we feel we have plenty of information for tomorrow - and, more importantly, for Sunday.

"We are competitive in the long-runs but we have a bit of time to find in the short runs. There are a few bits to analyse to see where we can do better.

"It is very important here to have great race pace here," he added.

Although the 2022 driver and constructors titles have been settled, Perez is still fighting to finish as the runner-up behind Verstappen in the drivers standing.

He's currently tied on points with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc heading into the final race of the season.

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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.