Windsor sees Red Bull reject Verstappen's request: 'Might be a mistake'

Max Verstappen had to make do with the fifth fastest time in the second free practice, but if it had been up to him, he would have pushed for another fast lap to improve his time further. Red Bull Racing decided to put a stop to that, and Peter Windsor does not know whether the Austrian racing team was wise to do so.

Verstappen may not do another flying lap

Verstappen asked Gianpiero Lambiase if he could add another lap, as he was suffering from traffic and lost some time as a result. The two-time World Champion was told by his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, that it was "not qualifying". Verstappen then responded by saying he would like to get more of a feeling of the softs on a fast lap.

"They said, 'Max, this is only Friday. Bring the car in. Let's get on with the fuel run'. He wasn't too happy about that," Windsor said in his analysis on his YouTube channel. "And retrospectively, that may have been a mistake because if the Ferrari is that good around the lap, Max Verstappen is going to want to have a feel for what that quick lap feels like in the Red Bull without traffic, assuming he could have created that lap. He doesn't have that yet."

The F1 analyst continued, "Maybe he's going to get that tomorrow, a different day, of course, going into qualifying as well. But Red Bull today, just getting on with the homework and not letting Max do a second lap, a traffic-free lap." Verstappen must also take into account that there are few tyre sets available: only 11 instead of 13 this weekend. In Hungary - when this qualifying format was previously tested - very few laps were driven in the third free practice to save rubber.