Verstappen: We still have some work to do

Max Verstappen was more than half a second behind Carlos Sainz's fastest time in the second free practice, but the Dutchman hinted that the gap was partly down to tinkering with the settings.

"The second practice session was a bit more difficult for us," admitted Verstappen, who was faced with overheating tires and the resulting understeer of the car.

“We didn't find the right balance as we had hoped, but we also tried some things on the track. We will study everything for tomorrow and try to get closer to the fastest. The pace on longer sets of laps was slightly better, but the tires are overheating and it is difficult to assess how good our form is, but we definitely have some work to do."

Too much tire wear prevented Verstappen from fighting for the race win in Austria, and temperatures are even higher in France this weekend, so the big question is how Red Bull's car will behave on the track. "We don't know. The track is unforgiving on the tyres, so it's hard to compare with Austria, and in general you would need more laps to see exactly how they behave during a race simulation.”