F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Verstappen 'never really got into a rhythm' on tricky Friday

Max Verstappen complained that it was hard to get into any sort of rhythm during the first day of practice for the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne.

Verstappen was quickest in first practice with a time of 1:18.790s despite two red flag stoppages, one for a general circuit-wide GPS issue and then for Logan Sargeant's Williams suffering an electrical failure in the last five minutes.

Verstappen was almost a second slower in the second session which was hit by showers and rain, frustrating attempts to get in proper lapos on the slick soft compound tyres.

Read also: Fernando Alonso tops wet Australian GP second practice

“The conditions weren't great out there today," the Red Bull driver said after the end of FP2, in which he finished third behind Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

"We had low grip and the tarmac seemed to be slippery," he explained. "It was quite tough to switch the tyres on, so that was difficult when you want to push immediately.

"There were also quite a few interruptions," he continued. "We never really got into a rhythm. It was difficult to tell how the car felt as we never got a window where I thought we were on top of the tyres.

"We’ll look over the data tonight and see what we have to do tomorrow." he added. "The conditions should be clearer for the rest of the weekend, so we can focus on that.”

His team mate Sergio Perez was third in FP1 but dropped to seventh in the later session after his one flying lap opportunity ended up encountering a slow car after setting two purple sector times.

“There were some issues with the GPS in FP1 and it felt like a lot of us still had issues with it in FP2," he noted.

"We made some good changes from FP1 that I could feel in sector 1 and sector 2 but I couldn’t get a full lap in the afternoon with the traffic in sector 3.

"I was a bit surprised in the damp conditions that I couldn't get a good sense of the track, but in the dry it was great and the car felt good.

"There is plenty to do tomorrow, but we still take a lot of confidence from today," he added. "Tomorrow we will see where we really are.”

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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.