2021 Abu Dhabi GP : Post-Friday practice reaction from Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez

Red Bull Formula One team had a mixed Friday Practice session at Yas Marina Circuit. Max finished First practice session FP1 in P1 with an unbeatable time of 1:25.009 and he managed to complete 23 laps. 

Sergio Perez goes fourth fastest with a 1:25.363 lap after completing 24 laps, the Mexican time was +0.354s shy of his team mates fastest time.

In the FP2, Max set a best time of 1:24.332, which saw him finish the session in P4. Checo finished the session in P5, just 0.068s behind his teammate. Both Max and Checo managed to complete 25 & 26 laps in the second session respectively.

Importantly Max Verstappen’s title rival goes fastest in the FP2, +0.641s ahead of Max’s P4 time. The pace of Mercedes cars are a real concern for Red Bull and Max ahead of crucial Pole and Sunday’s race. Last six races in Abu Dhabi won from Pole, so qualifying is important.

Max Verstappen

“I like the new track layout, it’s more fun to drive with the faster corners, especially in the last sector. We made a few changes to the set up across the two sessions and I do think they are positive. We are still learning and understanding a few things. The short runs didn’t go to plan, we are lacking a bit of pace but I think the long runs were more competitive so that’s important. I’m looking forward to qualifying tomorrow to put it all together.”

Sergio Perez

“I don’t know how much the track has improved since last year. It’s still nice to drive but there are question marks for me on whether it has improved the racing. I think we have some work to do overnight after today’s sessions. We ran very different set-ups across the two cars, so we’ve got plenty of information that we need to go through in detail and pick out the best parts for qualifying. There will be learnings to take forward into our final practice session so we can look to qualify strongly on Saturday.”