“Overall we had a very good day”: Max Verstappen was all smiles after a ‘fun’ FP session in Barcelona

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen mentioned that he was satisfied with his performance in the first two practice sessions of the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday.

The reigning two-time world champion ended both sessions as the leader, with a dominant display in FP1 as he finished seven-tenths ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez. While analyzing his performance on Friday, he stated that he enjoyed the new track layout after the removal of the chicane in the third sector.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Max Verstappen said:

"It’s been a lot more fun to drive [the new layout], F1 cars, in general, feel better at high speed, so for me, the last two corners are much better to drive. I tried to follow a few cars, and it seemed actually quite ok through there as well. Positively surprised by the overtaking, and overall we had a very good day, the car was in a good window.

He added:

"Of course, you try to fine-tune a few things here and there, but short run, long run, everything looked quite good. From my side I felt very comfortable in the car [on how RB19’s long run pace compares to the rest], looking after the tires. We still need to look at the lap times of others but from our side, it was a good day. It’s not too bad [the bumps on track], this track has resurfaced a few years ago and it’s still quite decent."

"I think the longer you leave the regulations the same, the closer people will get" - Max Verstappen

The Dutch driver suggested that F1 should leave its racing regulations as is and not make any tweaks to get teams closer. The 25-year-old thinks that teams will find ways to close the gap to the top the longer the regulations stay the same.

As per Motorsport.com, Max Verstappen said:

"We've always seen this in Formula 1, it's nothing new. I think the longer you leave the regulations the same, the closer people will get. So maybe this is something we need to look at. But you have the odd year or maybe two years where there are two teams fighting, maybe potentially a third team, but overall, when you look back at the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, and early 2010 all the way till 2020, it's been pure dominance of certain teams."

Verstappen added:

"Just keep the regulations the same for a longer period of time. Because if you keep on tweaking stuff, one particular team will always find something a bit better than the others and then it takes a bit of time for everyone to close up, from my side."

Max Verstappen will look to extend his lead at the top of the Driver's Championship this weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya by winning the Spanish GP on Sunday.