Max quickest on Friday at Spa: 'The car is running well'

Published on 28 August 2020 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen clocked the quickest time of the day during Friday practice for the Belgian Grand Prix. The Dutchman was quickest around Spa-Francorchamps, ahead of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton.

“The car is running well”, said Max reflecting on his first day at Spa. “We started the weekend well. There are a couple of things we need to work on before tomorrow, but generally speaking I’m very happy. It’s never perfect, so you’re always looking at little things to improve.

The Dutchman added: “I think personally that Mercedes is struggling with the balance, but I expect they will be stronger tomorrow. You could already see in the long runs that they are competitive. I don’t expect to fight for pole position tomorrow. If we are a bit closer to them, that would already be good.”

Despite earlier in the day, rain washing over the Belgian circuit located in the Ardennes Forest, FP2 is a dry affair.

Ten minutes into the session, Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo is the first car on track, quickly followed by team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

Shortly after, Max heads out for his first miles of the afternoon. On his first flying lap, he uses the medium Pirelli tyres and immediately sets the fastest time.

As the teams bolt on the soft tyres to run qualifying simulations, Max drops down the sixth. However, as soon as the Dutchman puts on a fresh set of soft Pirellis, he bounces straight back to the top of the timing sheets. His 1:43.744 will be the quickest lap of the session.

After several Ferrari power-units needing replaced in FP1, Renault encounters some issues with their engines in the second Friday session. First, McLaren’s Lando Norris complains about a loss of power in the early stages of the afternoon before Daniel Ricciardo parks his Renault in the grass on the Kemmel straight after his power-unit shut down.

With fifteen minutes on the clock, all drivers, bar Ricciardo, are on track, but not for long; several advertisement signs have fallen onto the track and the session is temporarily red flagged. The marshals do their work swiftly and the track is cleared within minutes.

In the closing minutes, Max switches to medium Pirellis, meaning, like the rest of the field, he does not improve on his fastest lap he set earlier in the session.

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Results second free practice Belgium: