Verstappen declares Red Bull 'enjoyable to drive again'

Max Verstappen was delighted to be able to report that the Red Bull was back to its old self this weekend, after an odd slump experienced by the team at last week's Singapore Grand Prix.

This time, Verstappen was comfortably ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz as well as McLaren's Lando Norris in both free practice sessions at Suzuka in Japan.

That compared with a tempestuous time last weekend which saw an end to Verstappen's record-breaking run of race victories as he finished down in fifth place with the car looking a handful throughout.

There had been speculation that the sudden drop in performance might be related to the FIA's updated technical directive on flexible floors, but team boss Christian Horner insisted that there had been no changes made to the RB19.

And on Friday in Japan, Verstappen wasted no time backing that up by showing that Red Bull were still well out in front of their rivals and that the car was feeling more like its old self.

• Read also: Verstappen continues to set the pace in Japan second practice

"It felt really good today. From lap one the car was enjoyable to drive again," Verstappen told the media in the paddock at Suzuka International Racing Course after the end of practice.

"It seems like we had a strong day, on short runs, long runs.," he noted. "There's a lot of degradation on this track, so it will be quite tough on tyres in the race but so far we had a good start to the weekend.

"It looks like it's all a bit tight behind me. Ferrari and McLaren are close, so we'll have a look," Verstappen said when asked if he felt under threat from any of the other drivers on track.

"I think at the end of the day, we just focus on ourselves and try to optimise our performance," he continued. "If we do that then I'm confident that we can fight for pole."

His team mate Sergio Perez didn't enjoy the same level of success on Friday, although that's not been particularly unusual for the Mexican this season.

He was 11th in FP1 and improved to ninth in the second session, but he remained a second slower than Verstappen in the final times when FP2 was red-flagged for a late accident involving Pierre Gasly.

"We had problems with the balance of the car in FP1, we tried to improve it a bit in FP2," Perez explained. "I think we have some pretty good understanding of the direction we need to take.

"Certainly things are looking a lot better than they were last weekend, which is positive," he added, confirming Verstappen's comments on a general improvement this week.

"I do believe that we were going to be strong tomorrow and also on Sunday," he said. "I look forward to qualifying well tomorrow.

"The degradation seems to be quite high around this place, especially with the hot temperatures we're expecting."

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