We are in Dutch Grand Prix weekend, that means a full go for Orange army to back Red Bull and it’s driver Max Verstappen to win it all.
This is the first time the Red Bull has taken part in the Dutch Grand Prix, with the last edition of the race dating back to 1985. It will also be the first home Grand Prix of Max’s career!.
It’s a new track on the calendar for this year and none of the current driver line up have raced a Formula One car around this short, twisty track. Red Bull drivers struggled for pace compared to their form in the other tracks.
In Friday morning’s Free Practice One. The session lost almost 40 minutes of track time due to Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin suffering an engine issue and stopping on track, and due to the car still being electrically live it took the majority of the session to get it off track.
In the very short session Max was able to complete 17 laps and finishing in P2 with a time of 1:11.597, +0.097s down on session leader Lewis Hamilton’s time.
Checo also completed 17 laps with a best time of 1:13.328, placing him P16 on the timesheet, +1.828s down on Lewis’ time.
In the afternoon session of Free Practice Two, there were two more red flags waved. One caused by Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes stopping on track due to a reported loss of power and the second by Haas’ Nikita Mazepin who spun off into the gravel.
However, the Bulls were still able to get plenty of track time during the hour. Max finished the session P5 with a time of 1:11.264, +0.362s down on session leader Charles Leclerc.
The Dutchman managed to complete 28 laps. Checo finished in P12 with a time of 1:11.946, +1.044s down on P1 time. The Mexican managed to complete 27 laps.
Max Verstappen
“It’s been a good day and it was really enjoyable to see everyone in orange having fun in the grandstands. Of course the track is also very fun to drive with a lot of fast corners so it was good to finally get out there.
From our side I don’t think the lap times are very representative today as I did my fastest lap on a used set of tyres. I was improving on another push lap and then Mazepin had a spin otherwise I think we would be higher up but it’s only Friday and we’re still looking at all the details of where we can do better and improve.
The long runs looked competitive which is positive but we also know that the start position is very important here so we’ll see what we can do to get more pace out of the car overnight.”
Sergio Perez
“It was awesome to get out there and drive this old school circuit. It’s very different to the other tracks we go to and with so many consecutive right-hand corners it’s a pretty unique and physical challenge.
I’ve never driven here before so it’s completely new and with so many red flags it was difficult to get into a rhythm. You really need the confidence going into the session to trust the car in order to push it and I wasn’t quite there or fully comfortable today so there are a couple of things on my side that we need to look at and make some decisions on in order to get the most out of the package.
It’s amazing to see so many fans enjoying themselves and cheering in the grandstands so I expect the energy around the track to only get better and better over the weekend.”
