Max Verstappen hands Orange Army warning due to 'underlying Red Bull problem'

Max Verstappen has warned his home Dutch Grand Prix fans that an "underlying problem" with his Red Bull could hamper his chances at Zandvoort.

The world champion was sixth and then fifth respectively in the two Friday sessions ahead of his home race, but was over half-a-second slower than FP2 pace-setter Lando Norris on the qualifying simulation runs. 

Verstappen has qualified on pole three times and been second once since F1 returned to Zandvoort in 2021, and has three wins and a second in the grands prix, but the Dutchman believes a repeat result could be out of reach this weekend. 

"It was nothing special, I was still really struggling with the same things," Verstappen explained of his Friday behind the wheel of the RB21.

"We tried a lot of things on the car, but it didn't really seem to change anything about the underlying problem, so we will look overnight to see if we can find a bit more [performance].

"But I am not going to expect a massive turnaround, I think it is tricky, and the layout of the track doesn't suit the car with the problems we have.

"The main problem is that in the middle sector, there are a lot of long corners, so it is not great, and it will be really hard to be in the top five [in qualifying], but we will see."