Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsToro Rosso

Verstappen praise for McLaren and Manor

Max Verstappen has been impressed by both McLaren and Manor so far during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

McLaren's Jenson Button was third fastest in FP2 on Friday evening as the team showed strong pace to finish best of the rest behind the dominant Mercedes duo led by Nico Rosberg. Verstappen was following Button for a spell and admits he was surprised by the pace but also impressed by the way the car performed.

“Maybe a little bit [surprised], but you could see the car itself is also very strong," Verstappen said. "I was behind him when he did the lap and when I did my lap and especially sector one they seem to be very strong. So definitely also from the engine side they made some improvements.

"The team is pushing hard to improve as you can see and it definitely looks like they have a good package.”

And Verstappen also had praise for Manor after Pascal Wehrlein set a competitive lap time on the soft tyre in FP2.

“Exactly. Force India will come back stronger, Williams for sure, and then Red Bull. Don’t forget Red Bull! They’re also there all the time.

"I mean even the Manors didn’t look too bad because they were running on soft tyres. Normally we shouldn’t take them that they would do the same pace as us but still they are up there. So it will all be very tight I think, that’s for sure.”

REPORT: Rosberg heads Hamilton and Button in FP2

AS IT HAPPENED: Bahrain Grand Prix FP2

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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.