Continued improvement impressing Verstappen at Red Bull

Several spins, but overall Max Verstappen is pleased with the progress shown by Red Bull over the Formula 1 pre-season tests so far.

Running in the morning on the penultimate day of pre-season testing in Barcelona was limited by track conditions with a rain shower over night leaving the track suitable only for intermediate tyres.

“It was a bit of a shame with the weather, so we couldn’t really run as much as we wanted, but overall it was positive," said Verstappen. "We spent time driving with the aero rakes, gathering all the data we could and everything went well.

"Every day we are improving, learning more, and that’s exactly what you want from testing. It was never the target to run as many laps as last week. I think we have done our long runs and now it’s about checking parts and trying different things. It all takes time and the end result is fewer laps, but I think we tried everything we wanted to today.

Verstappen span twice on Thursday morning. The first was due to lapping slowly on cold hard tyres on an aero run, but the second came while on a hot lap and, having spun into the turn-five gravel, a red flag was needed to recover the Red Bull to the pits.

"Regarding the spin I had this morning, I had a look back at the footage and I just clipped a little damp patch, which I didn’t see, but yeah, I think I just tried to take a little too much road on the entry!”

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