Tuscan Grand Prix – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen says he’s happy with his Friday running, and that he doesn’t think Mercedes are untouchable at the front.
Max Verstappen ended the first day of track time at Mugello in P3, less than a quarter of a second away from the fastest time set in FP2 by Merc’s Valtteri Bottas.
Having had a subdued Italian Grand Prix weekend at Monza last time out, Red Bull appear to be back to their usual position of harassing Mercedes at the front.
With 25 laps under his belt in FP2, Verstappen was in good humour after the session.“We can be pretty pleased with how the car is behaving and I think it was a good first day at Mugello.” said Verstappen.
“We are not too far off Mercedes which is a good thing and also balance wise, there are always things that can be improved, but overall I was pretty pleased. This is a very cool track to drive in an F1 car with so many fast corners and to be able to take Arrabbiata 1 and 2 flat out easily is quite incredible and really enjoyable to drive.”
With Mugello being a fast and demanding circuit with high G-forces, Verstappen says he’s looking forward to the physical challenge of a Grand Prix at the venue: “It is pretty physical and I felt alright today but of course 59 laps in a row in the heat is not going to be easy. I like a bit of a challenge and we shouldn’t complain as we train hard to sit in these cars and we should just enjoy it. In terms of tyres, I expected it to be worse so let’s see how they hold up over the rest of the weekend. The track is my type of track – really flowing with no slow corners, so I’m looking forward to doing more laps.”
