Max Verstappen offered a frank assessment of his start to the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, describing Red Bull as “a bit too slow” compared to their rivals after finishing behind both Mercedes and McLaren cars in Friday practice.
Verstappen, aiming to make it four home wins in a row, trailed George Russell, Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris during the afternoon’s dry FP2 session at Zandvoort, which followed on from a tricky wet/dry FP1.
FP2: Russell leads Piastri and Hamilton in tight second practice at Zandvoort
Asked to reflect on his day, Verstappen said: “Of course, in FP1 I didn’t really get a lot of running in. I guess in FP2 you could see a little bit more where you are.
“[We’re] a bit too slow on the short run, a bit too slow on the long run, so a bit of work to do.
“At the moment, [there’s] no clear answer of how to improve that specifically, but we’ll look into things. Just a bit too slow, as simple as that.”
