Verstappen: Gap to Mercedes ‘not too big to overcome’ after F1 practice

Verstappen ended second practice just under 0.3s shy of Valtteri Bottas’ top time of 1m17.012s.

The Dutchman complained of understeer throughout the session as Red Bull goes in search of its first win at the Hungaroring since 2014.

With a deficit to Mercedes, Verstappen admitted “there’s a lot of things to look into” overnight ahead of qualifying.

Reflecting on Friday practice, he said: “No, just a few adjustments we were trying from FP1 to FP2 so just need to look into which things worked, which things didn’t. The track was also very hot, so it’s never easy like that, but we’ll see.

When asked where Red Bull needed to improve, he explained: “Yeah, especially over one-lap and also long run, so a lot of things to look into but nothing shocking. I mean it’s nothing too big to overcome, just in general not an easy day with track temperatures like this, so we’ll analyse everything.”

Sergio Perez struggled for pace throughout practice, ending FP2 0.8s down on Bottas in fifth.

Perez blamed traffic for being behind Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in second practice and remains confident he can find performance overnight.

“There is definitely time to be found, not fully comfortable with the car,” Perez added. “We’ve made good steps from not expecting these kind of conditions so just reading conditions better and getting a better lap. Traffic was critical on my lap as well, so I think there’s plenty to play for tomorrow still.

“We got a pretty good idea of which steps we have to take, so I’m optimistic for the rest of the weekend.”