Verstappen delivers first Zandvoort verdict after difficult Friday for Red Bull

He had already warned yesterday that Zandvoort was unlikely to suit the characteristics of the RB21, but Friday proved to be a challenging day for Red Bull and Max Verstappen.

Sharing his thoughts at the end of the day, Verstappen said: “Today wasn't great and we were still struggling with the same things that we have had issues with before.''

The Dutchman finished the first session in sixth place, almost a second behind Lando Norris’s McLaren, and capped it off with an uncharacteristic mistake at Turn 1 towards the end.

Things didn’t go much better in FP2, where Verstappen improved by just one position but still ended up nearly six tenths adrift.

He finally added: ''The layout of the track doesn’t suit the problems that we have with the car and it has been quite tricky today, especially in the middle sector there are a lot of long corners. It will be difficult to be fighting at the top but we will see tomorrow.''

Red Bull’s season has often followed the same pattern: struggling on Fridays before pulling a rabbit out of the hat on Saturday, thanks to overnight work at the track and in the Milton Keynes simulator.

The question is whether the same will happen tomorrow, in a qualifying session that looks set to be heavily threatened by the risk of rain. That risk was also present today but ultimately had no impact on either session.