Verstappen admits Red Bull simply ‘too slow’ as home hero ends Friday practice at Zandvoort searching for answers

Max Verstappen offered a frank assessment of his start to the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, describing Red Bull as “a bit too slow” compared to their rivals after finishing behind both Mercedes and McLaren cars in Friday practice.

Verstappen, aiming to make it four home wins in a row, trailed George Russell, Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris during the afternoon’s dry FP2 session at Zandvoort, which followed on from a tricky wet/dry FP1.

FP2: Russell leads Piastri and Hamilton in tight second practice at Zandvoort

Asked to reflect on his day, Verstappen said: “Of course, in FP1 I didn’t really get a lot of running in. I guess in FP2 you could see a little bit more where you are.

“[We’re] a bit too slow on the short run, a bit too slow on the long run, so a bit of work to do.

“At the moment, [there’s] no clear answer of how to improve that specifically, but we’ll look into things. Just a bit too slow, as simple as that.”

Having gone without a win since June’s Spanish Grand Prix, four events ago, Verstappen added that the position Red Bull find themselves in after the summer break is not unexpected.

“It’s where we’ve been the last few races, so it’s not really a surprise,” he commented. “We’ll try to just find a little bit more performance for Sunday.”

AS IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from second practice for the Dutch Grand Prix

On the other side of the Red Bull garage, Sergio Perez placed 12th, six-tenths slower than Verstappen, as he looks to bounce back from a difficult sequence of events.

“We’ve been testing quite a bit of stuff out there,” said Perez, as he and Red Bull aim to find a better direction when it comes to car set-up and recent updates.

“I think our day looks a little bit better than it shows in terms of order. I did a mistake into Turn 12, I went off, so I lost a couple of tenths.

“I think overall, we’ve got some work to do, especially in the long-run pace, to try and match the people ahead. I think we’ve run both cars very differently, so I think we’ve got a busy day ahead.”

Perez was also getting used to working with a new Race Engineer in Richard Wood, who has stepped up due to the Mexican’s long-time radio partner Hugh Bird going on paternity leave.

MUST-SEE: Join Norris for a lap of Zandvoort with F1’s spectacular gyro cam

“It’s obviously a little bit new for all of us to have Woody as Race Engineer,” he said. “It’s something that stands out on my side, but I think every session is just going to get better and [we’ll get] more used to it.”

Red Bull head into the weekend aiming to defend their lead in the constructors’ standings, with McLaren cutting the gap to just 42 points, while Verstappen leads Norris by 78 points in the drivers’ battle.

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