Max Verstappen says Pink Bull might want to discover extra tempo on Saturday to remain forward of Ferrari and Aston Martin in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The championship chief set the tempo in Friday’s second observe session. Nonetheless, he was simply six-hundredths of a second faster than Charles Leclerc and a tenth forward of Leclerc’s Ferrari workforce mate, Carlos Sainz Jnr.

After Verstappen solely posted the sixth-quickest time within the opening observe session, he admitted he had struggled along with his automotive across the bumpy avenue circuit at first.

“FP1 was fairly difficult,” he mentioned. “I used to be not likely proud of the trip of the automotive on the kerbs and the bumps.

“I believe FP2 was already rather a lot higher, the automotive was much more aggressive. However in comparison with Ferrari particularly I believe we’re nonetheless a bit missing on the overall trip of the automotive, so the way it handles the kerbs, the bumps, the drops in camber.

“In order that’s nonetheless one thing we have to work on for tomorrow as a result of you possibly can see they’re very, very shut and realizing that after you go all to the restrict in qualifying, we’d like a bit extra to simply keep forward of them.”

With Fernando Alonso simply two tenths of a second behind Verstappen in fourth place and having been faster than each Pink Bulls within the earlier session, Verstappen recognises the potential further risk from the Aston Martin driver.

“They’re shut as effectively,” Verstappen mentioned. “So we positively have to construct just a little bit extra of a buffer if we wish to be forward of them tomorrow.”

Verstappen’s Pink Bull workforce mate Sergio Perez was half a second slower than him in seventh place on the finish of second observe. Perez mentioned he must undergo the information along with his workforce to find out how he could make up that deficit on Saturday.

“I believe I simply want to sit down down with the boys and undergo that and attempt to decide up the perfect bits on the market,” mentioned Perez, “as a result of each millisecond right here goes to make a distinction.”

Requested if there was one thing elementary along with his automotive’s arrange that will clarify the margin, Perez mentioned it was solely “little issues” holding him again. “There’s nothing standing out in the meanwhile,” he mentioned.

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