Max P8 after Friday practice in Zandvoort: 'We can improve a lot'

Published on 02 September 2022 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen finished Friday practice to the Dutch Grand Prix in eighth place. Charles Leclerc was quickest in FP2, followed by his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) completed the top three.

“We weren’t able to run the soft tyres in the first training and on the hard tyre we weren’t able to see what the balance was because of the low grip. It basically means you’re a session behind”, explained the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver.

Max was not too happy with the car in FP2. “You can’t change that much during an hour long session, so we tried to deal with what we had. It wasn’t great today and we can improve a lot.” Nevertheless, the Dutchman remained positive: “We’ve got all night and tomorrow’s practice to look at the car. We’ll try to be more competitive.”

The second Friday practice session is delayed by fifteen minutes after Formula 2 qualifying ran over. As Max missed a lot of track time in FP1, the Red Bull Racer is one of the first on track. Like everyone else, with the exception of Alex Albon, he takes to the circuit with the soft Pirelli compound.

On his first flying lap, the Dutchman clocks the quickest lap thus far, but is quickly usurped by a gaggle of cars, with the Ferraris setting the pace. At the halfway mark, Max has dropped to eighth and after a lengthy stay in the pits, Max heads out for another run on the soft tyres with twenty minutes to go.

Unfortunately for Max, he is not able to utilise the tyres as the session is red flagged following Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpha Tauri stranding in the gravel traps. The session is resumed with four minutes to go and Max does manage a flying lap on the softs, but does not improve his lap time.

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Results second free practice Netherlands: