Max Verstappen reveals Red Bull hope after latest 'tricky' struggle

Max Verstappen has revealed his hope that Red Bull can make overnight improvements at the Italian Grand Prix after finding the car’s balance “tricky” to master.

Verstappen missed first practice at Monza after being replaced by rookie Ayumu Iwasa, meaning the Dutchman only got 60 minutes of running in the afternoon.

It was not a particularly impressive session for the four-time world champion, who ended FP2 ninth on the timesheets, behind the leading teams as well as Arvid Lindblad and Oliver Bearman.

Red Bull again finds itself comfortably adrift of the top three outfits, although, with the tow expected to be significant, there are opportunities that could arise for the Austrian marque.

The 28-year-old is hoping to be closer to the front in the race and is also hopeful of making progress over one lap.

"It was tricky to get the balance of the car right today and we will need to work on this for tomorrow to find a little bit more lap time," said Verstappen. 

"Our gap is still big compared to the front runners, but I hope that we can close it a little bit in qualifying over one lap. Hopefully we will be even closer in the race and it will come together a bit more on the long runs, but this is trickier to predict. 

"We are looking at what we can do overnight with the car and see if we can make some positive changes and try and get the true corner balance together. 

"Of course, it was only FP2 for me today, but it was good that Ayumu got a chance to drive."