It was World Champion Max Verstappen behind the wheel of the RB18 for Oracle Red Bull Racing, on the second day of the Official Pre-Season Test at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Verstappen completed 86 laps during what was a stop-start day, due to numerous red flags throughout the days running. By the end of it the Dutchman was sat in second spot, after posting a 1:34.011. The highlight of Verstappen’s day though came in a great little battle with Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr, giving fans hope that these new cars will be capable of overtaking.
Verstappen is pleased with how the day went and thoroughly enjoyed his mini-battle with Sainz Jr.
“I think we did as good a job as we could today, it was very warm and there were quite a few red flags. It was quite a good day, all pretty standard and we put quite a good amount of laps on the car. We won’t really use these tyre compounds for the race so again, it’s not really representative.
“It was fun to have a little battle with Carlos, I think he was on a long run with more fuel and I was on a shorter run and once I caught him he started using DRS, I think he wanted to race as well. So far the car is pretty good but there are always areas to work on.”
“Today was more about exploring and testing different things” – Red Bull’s Guillaume Rocquelin
Head of Race Engineering at Red Bull, Guillaume Rocquelin, was happy with the data the team gathered today, after spending most of it experimenting and taking risks.
“It was more of a stop-start day today, mostly by design. We had a good continuous run yesterday, so today was more about exploring and testing different things. We spent more time in the garage making changes to the car and also taking more risks. We learned a lot and gathered a lot of information today. I’m quite happy with what we found out, we are progressing in different directions and it’s all very positive. We were reasonably competitive at the end without even trying.”
