Max Verstappen is lacking confidence in his Red Bull after a heavily disrupted second free practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix despite some set-up experiments.
Over half of the 60-minute session at Suzuka was lost to red-flag delays following a massive accident for Jack Doohan in the opening stages, before Fernando Alonso beached the Aston Martin at the second Degner shortly after the restart.
Bizarrely, two late red flags were called for grass fires, with Verstappen only ending eighth fastest, about half a second slower than pace-setter Oscar Piastri. New team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was 18th.
Verstappen is looking to add to his unbeaten run at Suzuka after claiming pole and the win every year since 2022. But he knows he and the team have a great deal of work to do.
“It wasn’t an easy day because of the red flags,” Verstappen explained.
“We couldn’t complete our programme, but that’s just like everyone else, of course, but we tried a lot of different things with the car.
Max is not happy with his Red Bull after a tricky Suzuka Friday
“It was difficult to get a good lap, you need a lot of confidence and commitment here, but it is not there yet so we have some work to do.”
