Max Verstappen felt it was a ‘pretty decent day’ despite his incident in first practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Dutchman lost the car under braking into turn five and slid into the wall bringing his session to a premature end.
“Pretty decent day overall, the car is fast so I’m happy about that, though obviously not happy about the incident in FP1, it was a bit windy and I lost the rear, spun and hit the wall but my mechanics did a really good job repairing the car and luckily it didn’t really affect us too much,” said Verstappen.
Second practice saw Verstappen sit out the opening twenty minutes but was on the pace when he eventually got out, finishing a tenth of a second behind team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
“We pretty much ran to the programme and the car in second practice was very competitive,” said the Dutchman. “We were good on both tyre compounds so I’m pretty happy with that.
“We look quick but of course you always want to improve.”
It was a strong showing for the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team but Verstappen is aware of the threat from Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport.
“Kimi is quick and for sure tomorrow Sebastian will be there, so we still need to improve but it was a good day,” said Verstappen.
“We also know that in Qualifying Mercedes have this power mode so they will be quicker but on the other hand, our car was handling well and when you start to feel more and more comfortable in the car you can usually gain three or four tenths on a track like this, so hopefully it will be the same tomorrow.”
Verstappen had to limp back to the pits in the final moments of second practice but is not concerned about the issue.
“As for the end of the second session I think we just had a faulty sensor issue so no concerns.”
