Verstappen concludes: 'Today was just not good'

"It's fun to drive again now. It is a beautiful layout anyway. They are super nice corner combinations," said Verstappen to Formule 1 Café during an interview with Olav Mol. The front end was quite nervous of the Red Bull on the opening day. "It just didn't turn well enough at the front. I was suffering from a lot of understeer. It was a tricky day where we didn't really get to a good balance, not in both sessions."

The results in the first and second free practice sessions were nothing to write home about. "You saw that right. Today was just not good. We do have to work on it, yes," said Verstappen, who also felt the longruns on the mediums didn't go well enough. "That one was also too slow compared to Mercedes."

So were there any things that did go right, Mol asks in conclusion? "Everything else was fine, but the lap times were not so good. That can happen sometimes. We have to understand where the problem lies. At least we need to know where we can gain more time." If the RB16B still proves not to be competitive enough on Saturday, Verstappen would be quite happy to have some rain. "It depends on how well we go in the dry tomorrow, otherwise it may rain from me."