After struggling over the last few races, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were feeling better about life after what they described as a positive and promising practice day for Red Bull in Baku for the Azerbaijan GP.
The formerly dominant RB20 has been looking distinctly off-colour of late with Max Verstappen not having won a race since Spain at the end of June, and not having started from pole position since Austria.
That's allowed their rivals - McLaren in particular - to close the gap to them in the championships race, with Red Bull's lead in the constructor standings now down to just eight points.
Red Bull have fast tracked some upgrades to the car for this weekend's race, and so far the signs are good that this might return something of their former edge over their rivals that they sorely need right now.
“It was definitely a good, solid day,” Perez declared after finishing the day second fastest just 0.006s behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, having been third fastest in the earlier session.
“We made good progress from FP1 to FP2," he acknowledged. “I think we’re heading in the right direction, we’re finding that we can put a little bit more together the car. I think there is a good base there for us to build from.
"There’s still a long way to go, but it’s promising what we’ve seen so far," he added. "We just have to make sure that we’re able to progress from here. I think we can definitely be in the mix for [pole position] tomorrow.
“I think tomorrow anything can happen really," he insisted. "We just have to keep our head down and hopefully deliver a great couple of laps. Well - we only need one in Q3!”
Verstappen claimed the top spot in FP1 but then had a more problematic time in the second session, ending up down in sixth place after a number of lock-ups and run off, and a super-close near-miss with the barrier at one point.
He ended the day half a second behind Leclerc and his own team mate, but didn't sound worried about how things were looking, sharing Perez' optimism for the rest of the weekend.
“I think overall a good day,” he stated. “We learned quite a bit, now it’s just about tidying up the things that we tried. But I think so far we have been more competitive this weekend, so that’s a positive.
“But for sure FP2 was a bit more difficult for me," he admitted. "I had some issues with my visor - when the sun comes down in between the buildings you have some glaring moments and I struggled with the visibility.
"The track is also very slippery, a lot of 90-degree corners. If you have a tiny lock, sometimes you hold the brake to not hit the wall or whatever, just out of precaution.
"Like I said, we just need to get the balance together a bit more," he continued. "There has been a lot of work in the background and it has been positive. I’m quite confident that we can be competitive.”
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