Max Verstappen surpassed 100 laps on day two of the second pre-testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Dutchman suffered a delayed start to the latter half of the day as the team rallied to change the engine, but in total he managed to run 102 laps.
The morning session began with a number of short runs and pit stop practice, before an issue was detected shortly before lunch that forced the removal of the engine. After the lunch break Verstappen returned to the track and committed himself and the car to a long stint/race simulation. But due to another issue, which is still being investigated by Red Bull Racing, the RB13 came to a halt out on track.
“It was not bad today,” he said. “We had some stoppages obviously but then in the afternoon we almost completed a full race distance, so that was good.”
“It felt good, and we got a lot of information today again, which is the most important thing. It was unfortunate that we had to stop at the end but I think we’re pretty confident we can solve those issues without any trouble.
“The long run this afternoon felt good…. quite long! It’s pretty boring when you’re out there on your own, but everything felt well.”
Verstappen finished in P4 with a time of 1:20.432, though it is difficult to make comparisons as the team were more concerned with race simulations and spent the majority of the day heavily laden with fuel.
Despite the setbacks suffered, the team were left satisfied by the data gathered and have plans to run a similar programme with Daniel Ricciardo tomorrow, albeit without the technical difficulties.
