Max Verstappen was frustrated after what he described as his worst Friday of the season, struggling to find the sweetspot with setup during the first day of free practice of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, the Dutchman at one point reported that he felt like he was driving "rallycross" at Suzuka.
In the morning session, the Red Bull driver was only good for sixth place but improved in the afternoon to claim fourth place on the timesheets, albeit 1.2 seconds shy of Lewis Hamilton's best time of the day.
During a long run in the afternoon, he radioed his team, "Can you guys check the car? It feels like I’m doing rallycross."
Afterwards, he told reporters, "We have a lot of work to do. We have under and oversteer so it wasn't a good day for me. We changed a few things after FP1 but they didn't work. We'll see what we can do tomorrow to improve the grip. Mercedes is too quick, but maybe we can be close to the Ferraris."
As for his day at Suzuka, Verstappen said, "One of the worst this season in terms of feeling in the car. No grip and around here you need to be confident in how you attack the corners."
"Today there was not one lap when I felt good in the car. I'm still not happy with the car. It doesn't really say anything for me," lamented the Red Bull driver.
Daniel Ricciardo, running the Renault running the C-spec power-unit as opposed to Verstappen using the B-spec, was slower but happier than his younger teammate, "I don't think I was as unhappy as him. We had different downforce, he tried less wing, I tried bigger."
"On one lap there's probably not that much difference with the wing, but in the longer run seemed like I was more happy and consistent," added Ricciardo.
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