Hamilton deleted lap time has skewed timesheet - Verstappen

Max Verstappen believes the picture ahead of the Styrian Grand Prix is not as clear as it may seem despite the F1 title leader finishing fastest in both of Friday's practice sessions.

Verstappen's best lap of one minute 05.412secs was set in FP2, fending off Daniel Ricciardo in his McLaren and Alpine's Esteban Ocon.

The Dutchman would have been second fastest had Hamilton not had a lap of 1:05.335s deleted for marginally running wide at the high-speed final corner. The Mercedes driver, instead, ended the day 0.384s off the pace in fourth.

Assessing the situation, Verstappen said: “The second practice Lewis was faster but his lap time got deleted so it looks a bit different than what is shown at the moment.

"I think overall it has been quite good for us. There are a few things still to look into but overall I am happy with where the car is at the moment.

"There are always things that can be done better, always things we can work on so that is what we are going to look at but overall it was positive.”

In five of the first seven races this year, Verstappen and Hamilton have finished in the top two positions and the Dutchman is expectant of another fierce battle.

He added: “We will have to wait and see what the weather will do [with thunderstorms forecast] but I think it will be again very tight.”

Perez searching for Red Bull comfort

Whilst Verstappen led the way, Sergio Perez was only able to set the ninth-best time, finishing nearly seven-tenths of a second behind his team-mate.

Although pleased with his long-run pace, the Mexican conceded changes would need to be made to ensure a competitive grid position can be secured on Saturday.

“Most importantly from our side, we just have to find a bit of finetuning," said Perez.

"To have the issues in practice where I am not so comfortable with the car, I take one direction and probably it is not the right one.

“I’m not concerned at all. We do have good pace, the long-run pace seemed to be promising, so if we can find a couple of tenths overnight we are in the fight for tomorrow which is important.”

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