Verstappen hails ‘solid start’ with Red Bull’s upgrades while Perez pleased with ‘really good step’ in Hungary

Red Bull may not have topped the timesheets during the first practice sessions of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend but it was an overall positive day for the squad, with Max Verstappen happy about the early performance of their upgrade package while Sergio Perez looked to have made progress during FP2.

The Milton Keynes outfit are one of many to have added updates to their car for the event at the Hungaroring, with the new parts including an updated front wing and changes to the rear brake duct.

FP2: Norris sets the pace while Leclerc brings out red flags during second practice in Hungary

Verstappen ended both first and second practice in P2 on the timesheets and, asked at the end of Friday’s running for his thoughts on the upgrades, the Dutchman responded: “I think we had a good day with it, of course there’s still a lot to learn and optimise.

“But I think it was a solid start to the weekend, and now we’ll try to look into the details to try and make it a bit better.

“Also FP2 was a bit interrupted [by Charles Leclerc’s crash] so we didn’t get the full long runs in like we wanted to – of course it was the same for everyone but, yeah, we’ll look into things. I think it wasn’t a bad start to the weekend and, yeah, [we’ll] work from there.”

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY - JULY 19: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull — Verstappen ended both of Friday's practice sessions in Hungary in second place on the timesheets

Pushed on whether he and the team were expecting to be back on the top step of the podium this weekend, Verstappen added: “I don’t know. We’ll just go with the flow and see what happens.”

On the other side of the garage, it was a decent day for Perez, who has found himself under pressure of late after a run of challenging races. The Mexican appeared more comfortable at the wheel of his RB20 in second practice and ended the hour in fourth place.

FP1: Sainz heads Verstappen and Leclerc during first practice in Hungary

“I think we did a really good step from practice one to the afternoon,” Perez commented afterwards. “We took the right changes, the right direction and, yeah, feeling good. I think also the long run looked promising so, yeah, let’s see what the rest of the weekend throws at us.”

Reflecting on whether this is the most comfortable he has felt in recent times when heading into a weekend, the 34-year-old – who exited qualifying in Q1 last time out in Great Britain after beaching his car in the gravel – joked: “Silverstone I was happy after Friday, but, you know…

He then added: “I think yes. I think it’s been a very good Friday, especially with the direction we took with the steps we made through the day. That’s the best we can do and that’s what really matters, so that’s been really positive.”

2024 Hungarian GP FP2: Zhou just misses Perez after spin at Turn 4

In terms of the direction taken on Friday in Hungary, Perez explained that there were still some areas to work on going forwards.

“I think [we’ve been] just really trying to dial up the set-up from… there’s still a bit of a miscorrelation in the simulator that we’re working on, to start the weekend a lot closer,” the six-time race winner said.

“But, yeah, at the end of the day it’s a question of putting everything together at the right time, and our time will come, so head down for now and [we’ll] look forwards for tomorrow.”

It wasn’t an entirely smooth hour for Perez, however, after he only narrowly avoided being collected by Zhou Guanyu when the Kick Sauber suffered a dramatic spin.

“I knew he was coming so I moved out of the way, and when I saw him spinning I had to go to the left quite quickly to avoid him, and luckily I managed to avoid him and didn’t have any damage so that was good,” the Red Bull driver commented on the incident.