2021 Qatar GP : Post-Friday practice comments from Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez

Red Bull had a solid Friday practice at  the Losail International Circuit. Max Verstappen had completed 22 laps and finished morning session in P1 with a best time of 1:23.723. While Checo finished the session in P6 with a best time of 1:24.915 after completing 22 laps.

The second practice session on Friday was under the Losail Circuit floodlights as the sun set in Qatar. Max Verstappen finished the session in P3 with a best time of 1:23.498, just 0.350 behind Bottas’ P1 time. The Dutchman managed to complete a total of 20 laps. Checo set a best time of 1:23.787 within his 20 laps, that time saw him finish in P8.

Max Verstappen

“I’ve had a lot of fun driving today, I think it’s a really cool track. FP2 was the first time we could test on the track in the evening so it was important to see how the car would react.

There was quite a big change between the medium and the soft tyre for me, the soft tyre wasn’t amazing but it’s the first time here so there are a lot of things to understand.

It’s difficult to say what will happen during the race with these cars, it’s tough to follow but I think over one lap it’s going to be good. Let’s see what happens this weekend, there’s still a lot of things to look at as everything is still so new.”

Sergio Perez

“I have driven this track before when I was younger and it is slowly starting to come back to me now I have been out there, I don’t feel that has put me at any advantage over others. I think we had a good start today but we have implemented some changes across the sessions and we need to review those, especially on the soft tyre.

The margins are very small, hopefully we can be strong come qualifying tomorrow evening. It is an interesting place, especially from day to night, it is very different.It is not an easy track and tomorrow we expect the wind to change so it will be interesting to see what happens.

I think we have some work to do overnight, we are not entirely happy with the balance of the car, so we will look at amending that before the morning. The next representative session will be qualifying so we will try to get the best out of analysing FP2 this evening and push on positively.”