Verstappen contradicts optimistic Marko ahead of qualifying

15:35, 05 Jul

Updated: 15:59, 05 Jul

byKimberley Hoefnagel

Max Verstappen disagrees with Dr. Helmut Marko's statements about his long runs. The Red Bull driver stated that the problems would not all be suddenly solved.

Verstappen had a difficult Friday, finishing tenth in FP1 and fifth in FP2. “It went really well yesterday, I went really fast," Verstappen joked in an interview with Viaplay.

"Yesterday wasn’t nice, the balance in the car was really difficult. It was actually really hard to make something out of it, it wasn’t great."

Verstappen disagrees with Red Bull

Helmut Marko said after Friday's free practices among others to GPblog that Verstappen's long runs did not look bad. The four-time world champion himself, however, disagreed.

"Yeah, but it’s always the same story, I look at that differently," he emphasized. Asked how he does see it, Verstappen responded: "That it’s the same problem. That you’re too slow in the short runs and the long runs."

Where does this difference in perspective come from? "Maybe they sometimes see a lap where it does look good, but it doesn’t feel good to me. So why would it suddenly improve in the long runs?"