Verstappen “got overtaken by the McLarens” during his long run simulation

Having failed to finish in the top positions during the opening practice sessions at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, reigning world champion Max Verstappen was left to rue his car’s race pace

Red Bull brought a series upgrades for this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, but their weekend did not start well. Although Verstappen posted several promising lap times, he complained about the rear of his car as he found the RB21 to be a bit snappy.

The Dutchman ended the opening day seventh fastest before taking fifth in the second one-hour practice. His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda complained about traffic on his hot laps, but he got a clean lap in FP2 to end up eighth fastest only a tenth slower than Verstappen.

Reflecting on his opening day in Imola, Verstappen said: “We tried a lot of things today. Some things worked a bit better than others but, ultimately, we weren’t fast enough today.

“Qualifying will be important here and, at the moment, we aren’t quite where we want to be. We need to do a bit more work to have a better balance in the car and go faster.

“It is the same in the long runs, I got overtaken by the McLarens and we weren’t really where we wanted to be compared to other Teams. Overall, it was a bit tough today."

His team-mate Tsunoda sounded a positive note after the first day in Imola, but conceded that there is still a gap to the field-leading McLaren.

“Overall it was a positive day of practice. We know our limitations and it was good to do our first long run today with the new upgrade package, but we need to nail it tomorrow.

“We still have lots of work to do as a Team and we will look to put it all together tomorrow. The gap at the top to McLaren still exists, but we’ll focus our side to keep improving and what we need to do to make a step for Qualifying."