FORMULA 1

Max Verstappen brought Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s first week of pre-season testing to close today in a stop-start session that was again affected by the conditions at the Circuit de Catalunya and by niggling technical issues. In the morning the team opted for limited running on the damp and cold circuit, with Max putting in 18 laps and focusing on short runs and aero testing. With the track drying in the afternoon more aero work was conducted before a mechanical issue affected running. A late spin for Max then saw his day end prematurely.

“Today we didn’t do any performance laps, but when you have conditions such as this, which are not ideal, then it’s best to just focus on making sure everything is working in the way you want and that the data you’re getting correlates to what is happening in the wind tunnel and that’s what we did,” said Max. “We had a couple of little hiccups today and then in the afternoon I had a little moment where I went into the gravel, tried to the reverse but it got stuck. However, I’m quite happy with the car so far, and maybe the second week will show a bit more how we compare against our rivals. I certainly hope it’s a bit sunnier next week.”