Verstappen's Red Bull 'all good'

Max Verstappen says his Red Bull is "all good" despite crashing into the wall and running into engine trouble in Friday practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Despite having running time taken away from him, Verstappen went third-quickest in Baku, with Daniel Ricciardo topping the timesheets.

Verstappen has been under the microscope after race-spoiling crashes in Bahrain and China, but made an inauspicious start to the week, spinning into the barriers at turn five.

His Friday ended in similarly worrying scenes as he limped back to the pits with Red Bull telling him to limit the revs on his engine.

Team principal Christian Horner suggested that a sensor issue might be at fault, rather than something more terminal, and Verstappen claimed that was indeed the case.

"We thought we had an issue, but they found out it was a faulty sensor, so nothing to worry about," he said. "All good."

Of his FP1 crash, Verstappen added: "It was a bit more windy, but I don't know, I lost the rear, spun, of course hit the wall.

Thanks to my mechanics we could run our full program this afternoon ???? Our race pace looks great again. In the end it was a good Friday #keeppushing #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/138CI0rhq8 — Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) April 27, 2018

"It was a shame. It was a bit slippery at the start. I couldn't catch the car and hit the wall.

"You just have to feel your way into the track because it was very dusty and slippery, as I found out.

"Luckily it didn't affect us too much in the second practice, so I'm quite happy.

"The mechanics did a great job to repair the car, and in second practice we did most of the programme."

Red Bull were sitting pretty in first and third on the timesheets by the end of Friday, but Verstappen remains guarded on their status as race favourites.

"We look quick," he said. "Of course you want to improve, and we know that in qualifying they have this power mode, so they will be even closer.

"But on the other hand, we still have a bit as well, and this track is a lot about confidence, so if you really feel good in the car, you can get a bit of lap time as well.

"On short runs I'm still fine-tuning a bit what I lost in first practice but in the long runs I think we were very competitive."