Max Verstappen revealed a “big problem” in that his race pace was poor on the opening day of the Mexico City Grand Prix, concerning the Dutchman ahead of Sunday. 

The four-time world champion was replaced by rookie Arvid Lindblad in first practice, before topping the second session of the day. 

Verstappen ended second practice 0.153s ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with his one lap pace having looked strong. 

However, the Red Bull driver complained over the radio that it felt like he was driving on ice during his long rain, causing much worry for the 28-year-old.

“Yeah, it was bit of a long wait for the day,” said Verstappen. “But on the short run, on the softs we managed to do a good lap. 

“The rest, everything else was pretty bad. So on the medium, the short run was not great. And the big problem is the long runs, where we seem to, yeah, struggle a lot. 

“So that is, of course, a big concern for for the race.”

Verstappen’s complaints over the radio were his first real negative comments since Red Bull introduced its new floor in Monza. 

For Mexico City, Red Bull has introduced another upgrades package, but one based around a new cooling system. 

Asked if he has any initial ideas what the cause of the issues is, Verstappen replied: “I don’t know yet, the balance wasn’t even off. 

“It was just no grip, which that is the bigger concern. So as soon as you go on a sustainable run, the tyres are going hot. Yeah, we were nowhere. So that’s a tough one, I think, to sort out as well, but we’ll see.”

Verstappen concerns

While Verstappen faced issues during his long run, he will still enter Saturday as the initial favourite for pole position but does still have third practice to gather additional data. 

Third practice will be the most representative session of the event at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez so far, in relation to the start time of the race. 

It has been a remarkable few rounds for Verstappen which has seen him cut his deficit to Oscar Piastri down to 40 points, having been 104 behind after Zandvoort. 

However, one bad race cannot be afforded, due to him still having a reasonable gap to overcome.

On whether he at least felt optimistic about his one lap pace, Verstappen responded: “Yeah, but you’re not going to win the race like that.

“You can be fast over one lap, but if you have absolutely zero pace in the race, then it’s going to be very tough. So I prefer to be fast in the race and not so fast over one lap.”