Max Verstappen finished Friday in sixth position in the Sprint classification of the Dutch Grand Prix of Formula 1, but acknowledged that Red Bull Racing still needs to find more performance. The Dutch driver stated that the lack of grip and balance harmed the car, despite an improvement compared to FP1.
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The team managed to advance compared to the only free practice session, but Verstappen assessed that there is still a lack of speed to get closer to the front runners. The Dutchman now intends to work on the setup overnight to try to reduce the gap for the rest of the weekend.
“Today it was a bit difficult to find grip and balance in the car. We had already taken a step forward compared to FP1, but we are still a bit below the performance needed to move further up the pack,” Verstappen said.
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The Red Bull driver highlighted that the team needs to better understand the car’s behavior before defining the next steps: “We need to analyze what we can do with the car’s balance tomorrow and work to find a bit more traction, to reduce the gap,” he added.
Liam Lawson, who replaces the injured Isack Hadjar this weekend, missed out on SQ3 and finished the Sprint classification in 11th. The New Zealander started SQ1 well but could not keep up with the progress of rivals in SQ2: “It’s a shame, because I felt we had the potential to reach SQ3. We will analyze this and keep learning tomorrow. I hope we can get everything right before the Sprint race and the qualifying session for the GP,” he concluded.
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