18:44 – Max Verstappen looks mostly positive at the Friday practice sessions for the Grand Prix of Great Britain. The Dutchman opened strongly at Silverstone with the top time in the first free practice, but apparently had slightly more problems in the afternoon. Nevertheless, he neatly occupies third place in the combined times list. More importantly, the feel in the RB16 is better than before.
Red Bull has brought multiple updates for the fourth race weekend of this delayed 2020 F1 season. The interventions should put the Milton Keynes team on the right track after the difficult races in Austria and Hungary. Verstappen already announced on Thursday that Red Bull ‘certain that they work better’ for certain updates, while other parts should provide more knowledge about the chosen development direction.
Better feeling in the RB16 is better thanks to updates
In both respects, Verstappen is satisfied after the first training sessions. “It was not a bad day for us, the car works better than before,” said Verstappen immediately after the session. “Of course things can always be improved, but we will continue to work hard on that. The long runs looked quite good, so all in all a positive day.”
Little can be said about the real balance of power now, partly because it was considerably warmer on Friday than during the remainder of this weekend. Verstappen mainly counts his blessings at this stage, that is: that the RB16 feels better than expected. “You never know exactly what to expect beforehand [van de updates], it is better to just get started and see how it works out. Fortunately, it looked and felt better than before. The upgrades introduced seem to work, I’m happy with that. “
Incident with Grosjean costs Verstappen a quick round
The fact that Verstappen got stuck on the fourteenth place during the second training does not say anything about the potential of Red Bull at Silverstone. “No, because I was blocked on softs during my fast lap and therefore had to cancel that round.” Verstappen was hindered by Romain Grosjean and made that quite clear with a few hand gestures. The Frenchman called Verstappen’s reaction ‘childish’, but the Red Bull driver did not want to waste too many words afterwards. “In the end, it doesn’t really matter at this stage. It is important that it was not a bad day for us.”
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