Max Verstappen admits “it wasn’t the perfect day” for him at the Marina Bay Street Circuit ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver was slower than team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in the first session and the Dutchman feels they have ‘room to improve’.
“It wasn’t the perfect day for me, we still have plenty of room to improve ahead of Qualifying tomorrow.”
Verstappen was second in Free Practice 1 but slipped back in the second session and admitted the car suffered with some understeer and is worried that they don’t have the pace to fight for pole on Saturday.
“This mornings practice felt good but I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the second session,” said the Dutchman. “This afternoon we could have been a bit quicker over the short runs as we suffered a bit from understeer.
“I don’t think we have the pace to fight for pole so we will just try to optimise the package.”
While Verstappen doesn’t think Red Bull have the pace to fight in qualifying, the Dutchman believes the degradation of the hypersoft tyres could give him a chance in the race.
“Once we have, short runs and race pace should improve,” he said. “It definitely wasn’t a bad day, some hard work tonight should put us in a good position with ability to attack.
“The Hypersoft struggled over the long runs, it dropped off quickly. The other compounds were not so bad which could make the race interesting.”
