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Marko sees Verstappen outside top-ten: 'Need to fight for it more'

21 July 2023 at 17:54
Last update 21 July 2023 at 17:58
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  • Matt Gretton
  • Editor-in-Chief

Helmut Marko, despite no Red Bull driver finishing among the first 10 in the second free practice, is not too worried. The 80-year-old Austrian calls the long runs encouraging. He admits there is still work to be done overnight and during FP3 to boost the speed over one lap.

"Especially the long runs were encouraging, we already changed a few small things there," said Marko, who is not so sure how exactly the performance ladder is at the Hungaroring now. "It is not as clear and unambiguous as normal. The times don't come immediately, we have to fight for them more."

Saving tyres

It was striking that Verstappen drove all his laps in the second free practice session on a set of soft tyres. Why were mediums and hard tyres not used? At Motorsport-Magazin.com, Marko explains that this was chosen to save a set for these two tyre compounds. Perez did have to use a set of mediums in the latter part of FP2. According to the Red Bull advisor, this had everything to do with the Mexican braking heavily earlier in the session.

Perez planted his RB19 into the wall in the first free practice session. Marko confirmed that the current number two in the world championship used up the last spare parts of the new update after his crash. So the motto for the rest of the weekend: no more crashes.