Verstappen: I wanted to be too quick on the hard tyre

About 15 minutes into the session Verstappen got high on the kerbs exiting Luffield, lost grip as his car snapped out of control, thrusting him into the wall and crunching the right rear of the RB13, his session over.

Afterwards he told reporters, "I think I wanted to be too quick on the hard tyre and I just lost it. The way you hit the wall you lose the right rear. The feeling I had before that was good. I just lost a lot of track time. It's better to drive a lot but I feel good from FP1 with the harder tyres. It feels like we're not fighting for pole, but we'll try again tomorrow."

Team chief Christian Horner confirmed that the team were using the 'Friday gearbox' in the car, thus grid penalties are unlikely but it did cost the team valuable track time.

Commenting on the incident, Horner told reporters, "It looked a bit like the high side of a motorbike where the car snapped to the left and suddenly gripped up and fired him off the circuit. Annoying and frustrating, but thankfully we've still got some good data from Daniel Ricciardo's car."

Earlier in the season Verstappen faced universal criticism for his waywardness but got on top of his form after Monaco. Since then he has been impeccable, winning last weekend in Austria after a mature and well-controlled drive.