Marko unhappy with first day at Monaco: 'We took a step back'

In the first free practice session in Monaco it all looked so good for Red Bull Racing. Sergio Perez set the fastest time and Max Verstappen was just behind him in third place. In the second free practice, however, it was a different story.

Ferrari very good

In the second free practice session Ferrari was surprisingly the fastest car on track with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in first and second place. Verstappen was even almost four tenths slower than Leclerc. "Sainz pulled it off relatively easily. Leclerc took longer, but he also didn't drive the first session, so that's understandable", Helmut Marko analyses the second free practice on Motorsport-Magazin.com.

In Monaco you can easily be bothered by traffic, so according to Marko it is also good to look at the fastest sector times when it comes to the optimal lap. "We are quite far from that," the Red Bull advisor let us know. "They are very good and we are very weak, so the gap presents itself quite large."

Step back

Why Red Bull ran so much less well in the second free practice than in the first free practice, the team doesn't know yet. According to Marko, there is only one thing to do. "We didn't make any progress with the set-up, but rather took a step back. We just need to get back to what we had and then refine that." The day off between free practice and qualifying is therefore most welcome.

What Marko is pleased about, however, is the speed in the longruns. "The longrun was very impressive, at least the two laps he [Verstappen] was able to do, but it's clear that we need to work on the qualifying pace." Qualifying is extra important in Monaco because overtaking is virtually impossible in the narrow streets of Monte Carlo.