Max Verstappen after the Madrid opener: “That will never change”

Max Verstappen completed 47 laps of the new Madring circuit on Friday’s practice day. In the first session, he completed 25 laps and set the fifth-fastest lap time of 1:34.703 on the Spanish tarmac. He was more than six tenths of a second off George Russell’s fastest time. In the second practice session, he reduced the gap to just under four tenths; with a time of 1:34.063, he was also significantly faster. Nevertheless, he could not move beyond sixth place on the timesheet, which was topped by Russell’s Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli.

Nevertheless, his overall assessment was not negative. The Red Bull Racing star explained: “It didn’t go too badly. I’m now simply trying to find a bit more time on a fast lap. I also want to get to know the tyres a bit better. And yes, it’s about getting a bit faster with every lap.”

The four-time champion refused to confirm that he’d had a problem with the power steering: “No, everything was fine. There are always things you want to work on in practice to improve. And that’s what we’re doing with tomorrow in mind. But yes, we’ll see. It’s always helpful, of course, if we can have another trouble-free third session before qualifying. Let’s see if we can improve our performance a bit more.”

When asked what he thought of the Spanish circuit at the IFEMA exhibition centre on the outskirts of Madrid, Verstappen didn’t exactly respond enthusiastically. “Yes. I don’t know. I’m not a fan of street circuits, and that’s never going to change. I’ll always prefer a track like Spa. But they’ve set everything up well here and done a really good job. I’m just not a big fan of street circuits,” explained the 71-time Grand Prix winner with his usual candour.

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