Max Verstappen delivers “very tricky” verdict as McLaren lead 1-2 in Belgian GP practice

Max Verstappen has conceded it’s been “very tricky to find the right balance” after trailing both McLarens in Friday F1 practice at the Belgian Grand Prix.

McLaren headed a 1-2 in FP2 at Spa-Francorchamps with Lando Norris 0.2s clear of teammate Oscar Piastri.

It was an impressive turn of performance from McLaren, at a circuit they struggled at in dry conditions 12 months ago.

Red Bull looked dominant in first practice after Verstappen set the pace by 0.5s.

Reflecting on the day’s running, he said: “We tried quite a few things because it’s typically Spa. You have the sector one, sector three, where you want the top speed but a long middle sector where you want the corner speed.

“Very tricky to find the right balance. We’re trying a few things to see what’s better. Will look at it now, analyse it. We started off quite positive today.

“Second practice wasn’t as good. We have a few things to look at with all the changes that we made as well.”

Verstappen’s task will be made significantly more difficult as he serves a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change.

Unsurprisingly, Verstappen has his eyes set on the race in terms of any changes.

“Hopefully we can all put it together for the race especially because I have to start a bit back with the penalty for the engine.” he added. “Try to optimise.

“Naturally, of course, you always want a good qualifying but the most important is the race so that’s what we will focus on.”

Sergio Perez was off the pace, 1.1s off Verstappen.

Giving his view on the day, he said: “We’ve been playing around [with the setup]. We’ve been doing some stuff with it. We just haven’t been able to fully extract everything out of it.

“I think we got plenty of information. Both cars were quite different so I think we’ve got a lot to go through for tomorrow.

“Although the tarmac is quite different the degradation seems quite extreme.”