British Grand Prix: ‘Tricky to manage’ – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen concerned ahead of Silverstone qualifying

Max Verstappen warned of a potentially tricky British Grand Prix after both Red Bull drivers complained of problems with their vehicle.

A host of changes and attempted improvements have been brought to Silverstone and both the current champion and his team-mate, Sergio Perez, were not entirely content with their cars ahead of Saturday’s third practice session and qualifying to follow.

In the first practice session on Friday, both Perez and Verstappen did not record a time in blustery conditions, but were able to get out in the later session.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Verstappen acknowledged the team had problems after failing to get out for an early run.

“It’s always a bit tricky after not driving in FP1,” he began. “FP2 becomes a lot more a bit of guessing, whereas normally in FP1 you build it up.

“It was not ideal but not a big issue. I think we know what we have to work on and we’ll do that overnight but probably tomorrow morning it’s raining, or yet again different kinds of conditions, but it was OK.

“It’s a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it works for you, sometimes it’s not amazing. This time it was not amazing but it’s not really bad so we’re still in there.”

Verstappen explained that there were concerns over tyre degradation, saying: “The tyres in general wear a lot so I think it was always going to be quite tricky to manage.”

McLaren’s Lando Norris was third quickest, but he was not overly optimistic.

“It has been a tricky day because the wind made the conditions extremely difficult,” he said.

As good as it looked, it is still difficult to put things together and be consistent in the long run but I am happy.

“The car seems to be in a decent place, at least, a little better than we were expecting.

“Whether that is good or not or it is because we have turned up more than the others I don’t know.

“As far as we know from ourselves things are in a good area and we can find some more improvements into tomorrow.”