Coulthard after Verstappen’s false start: "Max will be Max"

David Coulthard sees Red Bull Racing lagging behind after Friday's practice due to Max Verstappen's gearbox problems in FP1. However, the Scot does not think his former employer and Verstappen are without a chance of victory in the Dutch Grand Prix as a result.

Verstappen only drove seven laps in the first free practice session, while the competition sometimes exceeded twenty. In the second free practice session, the Dutchman had far less data than his rivals and that meant he was at a disadvantage. Red Bull's set-up of the RB18 is based on Verstappen's feedback on the car in practice.

Red Bull faces competition

Red Bull's performance at Spa-Francorchamps was impressive, but Ferrari and Mercedes have improved considerably this weekend. Both teams are in good shape, both in the qualifying runs and the long runs. It will have been a busy night for the in Milton Keynes and they will be hoping to get a lot of mileage in the third free practice session.

"Well, of course there's a huge expectation ahead of every Grand Prix, especially when you come off the back of something like we saw in Spa. But the reality of course is that - we already knew, the circuit, different challenge, different possibilities - and we're already seeing that of course it's not going to be as straightforward as we saw in Belgium," Coulthard told GPblog.com.

Verstappen wants to strike back

Coulthard suspects Verstappen may yet pull a nice surprise out of the hat, despite one of his worst Fridays of 2022. "There was also the technical problem this morning [Friday], which is never good, but Max will be Max, he will do the best he can and in the end the racing gods will decide," he concludes.