Max Verstappen feels Red Bull needs more pace at the Monaco GP to stay ahead of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz

Max Verstappen the fastest in practice two of the Monaco GP ahead of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz; but it was not an easy Friday for the F1 championship leader, as he initially struggled with the balance of his RB19; watch P3 from 11:30am on Sky Sports F1, with qualifying at 3pm

Max Verstappen believes Red Bull needs to find “a bit more” pace to stay ahead of Ferrari at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Verstappen, who struggled with the balance of his RB19 in practice one, was quickest in practice two on Friday, but only by 0.065s behind Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc looks to make it a hat-trick of pole positions at home on Saturday.

“FP1 was quite difficult. I wasn’t very happy with the car driving over the curbs. FP2 was already much better, the car was much more competitive,” said Verstappen.

“Compared to Ferrari, we’re still lacking in the overall handling of the car, so how it handles the curbs, the potholes, the camber drops. So it’s still something we need to work on.”

“They are very, very close and they know that once we get to the limit in qualifying, we need a bit more to be ahead of them.”

Verstappen led the second practice session at the Monaco GP

He added: “I think there’s still a little bit of scope to go in the same direction even more, so I hope it’s even better.”

“The car was drivable and that makes you capable of putting that lap [together], push a little more, get closer to the railings around here. Overall, a tough start but a good finish.

“[Aston Martin] They’re also close, so we definitely need to build in a bit more protection if we want to stay ahead of them.”

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Verstappen says his Red Bull car initially had trouble handling the Monaco track during practice on Friday.

Last year’s Monaco GP winner Sergio Perez had a difficult day as he was seventh and more than half a second behind his teammate Verstappen.

The Mexican, who is 14 points behind Verstappen in the standings, admitted that “it was not a great day” on his part.

“I just need to sit down with the guys and go through it and try to get the best out of it, every millisecond here is going to make a difference,” he said.

“I think it’s going to be a real challenge going into Qualifying, so it’s going to be an interesting session.

“To stay on top of the tires and make sure we put the tires in the right window at the right time.”

Sainz: The fall will not affect me

Carlos Sainz was the fastest in Practice One and was strong in the second session, before crashing at the Chicane de la Piscina.

As many drivers have done over the years, Sainz pushed the inside barrier at Turn 16, which broke his suspension and he went straight into the outside wall.

“It was a very small accident, I just hit the wall on the inside of Turn 16. A typical Monaco miscalculation, so a shame because I gave the mechanics extra time today,” Sainz said.

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Carlos Sainz hits the inside barrier of the Chicane de la Piscina to crash and cause a red flag in FP2

“But in terms of confidence and lap time, I’ve been working all day and a miscalculation is not going to affect me.”

“I think we are on the right track to at least challenge him. [pole]. I think Red Bull is still fast, they are still leading after today.

“But we’ve been closer than any other weekend, and hopefully we can at least give them a chance, but I think it’s still going to be tough.”

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Carlos Sainz narrowly avoids colliding with his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc in Practice 2 of the Monaco GP

Leclerc: Everything is possible

There was little to separate the Ferrari pair for most of the day and Leclerc alluded to pole position being possible.

“We are good, but Aston Martin and Red Bull also seem to be very fast,” he said. “We still have to take a step forward, the feeling with the car was not so bad, in FP1 it was a bit difficult, in FP2 a bit better, but there were some things that were not expected in my car, so we “. I will work through the night to try and get the car exactly how I want it.

“I’ll give it my all, qualifying is everything here. There’s a lot of talk about my last race but, at the end of the day, qualifying has always been one of my strong points, so I’m not too worried and I’ll do it.” cheer up and let’s see what happens.

“I don’t think we have the best car, Red Bull is faster, Aston Martin is there, but if we do a great job and I put everything on my lap, then anything is possible.

The Formula 1 season continues with the Monaco GP this weekend. Watch qualifying at 3:00 pm on Saturday with lights out at 2:00 pm on Sunday. Get Sky Sports