Verstappen works on long run pace in Australia and it pays off

Max Verstappen will have increased his confidence levels in the third free practice session. The Dutchman came second (again), but will be especially happy with his long run on the medium tyre. It appears to have improved a lot.

On Friday, Verstappen barely got to a longrun. The Red Bull Racing driver spent about 20 minutes on the sidelines as his floor had to be replaced. The Dutchman had sustained damage at the end of the first free practice session, which made his FP2 a lot shorter. As a result, Verstappen did not get a proper longrun.

Red Bull wanted to rectify that on Saturday and so Perez and Verstappen were among the few to do a serious longrun in FP3. While the fast runs may still be a bit disappointing, Red Bull will draw a lot of confidence from these longruns.

Why Verstappen can draw confidence from his longrun pace

Whereas Perez fell well short of the longrun of the Ferraris and McLarens on Friday, it is now clear to see that Perez has taken a step forward. Still not the fastest average pace, but the Mexican does manage to limit the decay over nine laps, unlike Ferrari's drivers.

On Friday, the longrun analysis already highlighted that Perez's longrun does not say everything, as Verstappen is always a bit faster than his teammate. This is evident again in the third free practice session. Verstappen completed two laps less than his colleague, but was considerably faster than Perez.

With an average of 1.22.8, Verstappen is also the one with the fastest longrun this weekend. Charles Leclerc averaged 1.22.9 on Friday and did so with two laps less than Verstappen. Ferrari's lapse also seems to be greater than Red Bull's at the moment.

Over one lap prior to qualifying, Ferrari still seems to have just the advantage over Red Bull, but then the Austrians have focused more on the long runs. That should then pay off on Sunday during the race. After all, that is where the points will be distributed.