Verstappen unconcerned with sudden stop

Editor

Max Verstappen was unfazed by his Red Bull RB14 grinding to a halt in Barcelona, which saw him miss a big chunk of the afternoon session on Tuesday.

It is not the first time the Dutchman has been forced to sit in the garage while engineers worked on the car, but he is still very happy with what he is experiencing out on track.

“We did a lot of laps, that was very important to get the mileage on the car,” Verstappen said.

“It was a good day. We had one small battery problem so we had to change that – it always takes a little time – but afterwards it was all good again.

“The most important thing was to get a lot of laps under our belt, see how the car was behaving, so we managed to do that.”

Verstappen had completed 114 laps when the battery problem occurred. However he returned to the track within the final hour to take his tally up to 130.

He added: “[The feeling] all good but we still don’t know what the others are doing, so we have to wait for Melbourne and see how good or bad we are.

“It’s difficult to say [where the car improved] because of the new tarmac. It really changes the whole car, the whole way of driving, also with the new tyres. It feels alright. The car is definitely faster than last year, so that is positive.

When asked about any new features being introduced before the end of the week, he simply said: "You will have to keep your eyes open."