Red Bull had a terrible Grand Prix by its own standards in Singapore, but their F1 rivals predict Verstappen will dominate again at Suzuka this weekend.
Max Verstappen sent a clear message to his Formula 1 rivals by dominating practice for the Japanese Grand Prix on Friday.
Red Bull lost its 100% winning record last weekend in Singapore and struggled to find rhythm throughout the three days. This gave Ferrari their first race win of the year as Carlos Sainz made the most of his misfortune.
But Verstappen’s rivals knew from the start of the race at Suzuka that Red Bull might be getting back on track. and the Dutchman proved them right with worrying lap times in the first two practice sessions of the weekend. He was more than half a second faster than Sainz in a hot and humid first practice session. Lando Norris finished third ahead of a race where he hopes to compete for another podium in his improved McLaren.
However, it was not an entirely smooth session for Verstappen. He swore many times on the radio during his struggle in Singapore, but this time he tried to restrain his language when expressing his disagreement with George Russell.
Unhappy with the Mercedes driver, who he believed had obstructed him, Verstappen said:
“This Mercedes is too dangerous to block the road.” But that didn’t stop him from rising to the top of the timesheets. He did it again in FP2, this time with a slightly narrower advantage of 3/10. The session was red-flagged a few minutes earlier than expected, after Pierre Gasly misjudged his trajectory at Degner’s second turn and broke the left front wheel of his Alpine.
Leave a Reply