Max Verstappen points to McLaren moment that exposed Red Bull's Imola woe

Max Verstappen has pointed to a moment involving McLaren which he felt exposed the scale of Red Bull's woe during Emilia Romagna Grand Prix practice.

The world champion was seventh in FP1 and fifth in FP2, but over four-tenths slower than Oscar Piastri who topped both sessions. 

Red Bull has deployed some upgrades for the Imola weekend as it seeks to make up for its Miami drubbing at the hands of McLaren, but after practice at Imola, Verstappen casts a downbeat figure.

"We tried a lot of things, and some worked better than others, but we are not fast enough at the moment," Verstappen explained. 

"[The confidence] at the moment is not very high, and we definitely need to do a bit more work to get better corner balance to go faster.

"It is the same in the long runs, I mean, I got overtaken by the McLaren, so that says enough, right? They pulled away. 

"But even then, compared to the other teams around us, at the moment, it was a bit of a tough day."