Russian Grand Prix – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen says that the pace of the RB15 looks strong throughout the entire lap of Sochi.
Max Verstappen ended the opening day of practice at the Sochi Autodrom as fastest man, eclipsing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.3 seconds with both men on the Soft tyre. The Red Bull driver put in a 1:33.162 and a total of 29 laps throughout FP2.
The Dutchman was happy afterwards, saying that he was pleased with the handling of the car over the entirety of the lap. He was particularly pleased to be competitive through Sector 1 – the part of the track which favours Ferrari due to the long high speed opening corner and straights.
“Today was very positive and the car worked really well on both tyres.” said Verstappen.
“We followed our own programme, tried quite a few things set-up wise and got a good balance, especially in the last sector but even the first sector with the long straight looked competitive. When you have a good feeling with the car it comes alive in the last sector which is really nice after the strange weekend we had in Singapore. It looks like it may rain tomorrow so that will also mix things up but hopefully the car will also work well in those conditions.”
Verstappen will serve a five place grid penalty this weekend, with Honda opting to fit all their customer cars with fresh Spec 4 power units. Despite this handicap, he says it’s not the worst track for such a penalty to apply: “We will of course try and do our best in qualifying as the five place grid penalty will be applied after the session, so it is still very important to be quick but at least you can overtake around here and if you are fast you can get to the front. It’s only Friday and too early to make any predictions as everyone will improve but it is a very positive start.”
