Verstappen has more up his sleeve: 'We can still find speed on that tire'

There's still some more speed in it for Verstappen

Helmut Marko was already in his element and calculated that Red Bull is technically three-tenths per lap faster than Ferrari. There is still quite a gap between the Red Bull drivers, but Verstappen at least manages to set the fastest times. His 1:14:127 of the second free practice session is only about two seconds slower than the fastest time of the previous FP2 in Canada. Leclerc then drove a 1:12:177. This is obviously due to the new F1 cars, but Verstappen thinks just as well that some time can be taken off.

In a Red Bull press statement the Limburger says: "It was a positive day [...] The softest tire is always the hardest to master, so I think there is definitely more time to be found in that tire. If not, we still have a competitive car." 

Verstappen does not fear the rain 

With the fast pace, Verstappen also hopes to grab pole position again. The past fastest laps often went to Charles Leclerc of Ferrari. An interesting side effect of the upcoming qualifying is that there is a good chance that it will be driven on a wet track. Until 15:00 local time there is a good chance of rain, after that the chance does decrease, but rainfall is still not excluded. At 16:00 local time the qualifying starts. Verstappen: "If it rains during qualifying, it's the same for everyone. Then we'll just deal with that. At least it's good that we have a fast car for Sunday, so we'll see what happens tomorrow [Saturday]."