'Good day' for dominant Verstappen despite slippery track

Max Verstappen overcame some teething problems on Friday to emerge with a dominant lead at the top of the timesheets following Friday's free practice sessions for the Miami Grand Prix.

Verstappen was only fourth fastest in FP1 putting him behind both Mercedes drivers and Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc, but he was almost four tenths clear of the field in the later FP2 session.

Verstappen admitted that the newly resurfaced track at the Miami International Autodrome street circuit had proved a handful with a lack of grip, but it didn't seem to give him too much concern looking forward.

• Read also: Verstappen tops Miami second practice as Leclerc crashes

"It was a good day," Verstappen commented ot the media in the paddock after the end of the day's track activity. "I always felt good in the car and we had good balance in it.

"Initially it was getting used to the track a bit. It was ramping up a lot throughout the day," he continued.

"It is still slippery off-line, but on the driving line it is okay," he explained. "[But] as soon as you get off line there is a lot less grip.

"It is the same for everyone," he added. "There are still a few little things we need to look at."

One minor concern that Verstappen experienced on Friday was an issue with his HANS device catching on the headrest of the RB-19 restricting his freedom of movement.

The mechanics were able to attend to it on pit lane during FP2 under the watchful eye of the FIA's technical delegate with Verstappen soon able to get back out on track for qualifying simulations.

"Ideally we want to be fast on every corner, but that is not always possible," he said, adding that his main concern at this stage was the weather with storms predicted in the area. "We'll have to see what the weather will do."

Verstappen's team mate Sergio Perez was fourth in FP2 behind the two Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

Crowned the king of the street circuit after his dominant win in Baku, Perez was disappointed to be 0.489s behind Verstappen in Miami and critical of his driving on Friday.

"I haven't had the greatest of Fridays, and my lap was also pretty bad," he admitted. "I locked up on the final corner.

"I'm not driving really well today," he added. "If I improve my driving, and get myself a bit more comfortable, I should be alright. So there's quite a bit more to come."

Asked if the slippery new surface was giving him problems, Perez replied: "It is these low grip conditions, especially with the things that we tried in FP1. But yeah, it's all small margins.

"We were trying a few things with the mechanical balance, and learned quite a bit in the long run," he insisted. "The grip - especially in FP1 - felt like inter conditions, or wet-to-inter conditions."

Perez said he hopes to find more time on Saturday for both qualifying and race pace. "I don't think we got a race [simulation] because of the very few laps that we ended up doing out there. But we've got a good baseline."

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