Verstappen optimistic over Red Bull long run pace

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Max Verstappen admitted that Friday's practice session hadn't gone as smoothly as he might have hoped, but that he was confident that Red Bull was going in the right direction and could spring a surprise on its rivals when it came to race pace in the US Grand Prix on Sunday.

AS IT HAPPENED: United States Grand Prix - FP2

"I think we got it in the end, it as just a bit difficult to find a clear lap but in the end I think we got some good data," he said. "The long run was definitely positive.

"My short run was not fantastic," he continued. "We made quite a lot of changes on the car which didn't really seem to work.

"After the short run we changed a lot back on the car to what we were using in FP1 and that was quite a lot of difference.

"That's why it took me a bit longer to go out again in the long run as we made quite a lot of changes back to what we thought can work and it seemed to work pretty well.

"Once I got out there was a red flag - in the end, it was the same everyone - but in the end we got some good laps in and long run is pretty positive.

"I had a Ferrari in front of me so I was catching him in the long run so I guess that was positive."

Verstappen felt that the supersoft tyres would not be a major factor in this weekend's race strategy due to their short life at the Circuit of the Americas.

"You can see the supersoft we were losing a lot of laptime every lap that passed so I think it's more between the soft and the medium."

Overall, he felt that he and his team mate Daniel Ricciardo were in good shape to content for podium positions - and possibly victory - when it came to this weekend's race.

"We always try, and we'll see where we end up," he said.

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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.