Monza, Marko smiles: “We started with good balance”

The Austrian manager is confident

“F*ck sake”. As Max Verstappennot hiding a good dose of frustration, commented on the loss of grip of his Red Bull at the Parabolica when he was about to close his flying lap in FP2. The Dutch driver – who had been the fastest in FP1, setting the time with a new soft tyre after his opponents – concluded the second free practice session in 14th position because the next attempt was also not completed due to the red flag resulting from Kevin Magnussen’s exit from the track at Lesmo 2.

Helmut Markohowever, is satisfied at the end of this Friday also because in the long run Verstappen was on Lando Norris’s times. “We started with a good balance and this allowed us to work with continuity – Marko explained to the microphones of the Austrian broadcaster ORF – Verstappen didn’t complete the fastest lap due to a mistake at Parabolica, but then in the long run before the graining occurred we kept a good pace. On the single lap, then, we still hadn’t squeezed the engine to the max and in any case we were there”.

Now the hope at Red Bull is that the RB20 will continue to improve in FP3 too: “There are still some problems that are not easy to solve – added Marko – we’ll see how the car reacts in FP3.”