Red Bull’s Max Verstappen says a damaged floor compromised his prospects during Friday’s second practice session for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen finished third in the opening session but slipped to fifth in the afternoon, half a second off the pace of leader Lewis Hamilton at the Red Bull Ring.
Verstappen explained that damage he sustained to an old floor he was running, ahead of a new part being fitted on Saturday, left him on the back foot.
“I don’t think it was a perfect day as we had a damaged floor, something broke off the inside of the floor, so my second practice session I had to run with a floor that was a little bit cut or modified, let’s say that,” he said.
“It was an old floor so we will put on a new one tomorrow but today we had to be a bit limited on that which definitely compromised the downforce of my car.
“I think in general it was not the best day but there is still room for improvement. We know that we lose quite a bit of time on the straights and even though there is a third DRS zone it is still a bit too much. Still some work.”
Verstappen added that his RB14 does not yet have “the balance we want and we are chasing the balance a bit but we never really found the sweet spot yet. There’s work to do tonight.”
Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo used the Supersoft tyres, as opposed to the Ultrasofts, to finish in fourth position.
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