Red Bull confirm problem for Max Verstappen in Singapore

Max Verstappen suffered a radio failure during opening practice for the Singapore Grand Prix, Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies has confirmed.

The Dutchman's first running at Marina Bay did not go smoothly as he completed 22 laps during the session, among the fewest of anyone.

He was forced to return to the pits after just seven laps into the session on the hard tyre, with mechanics spotted working on the car.

Mekies explained the problem while the session was still ongoing, detailing that Verstappen had lost radio contact with the pit wall, leaving race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase unable to communicate with his driver.

Discussing the issue, Mekies told Sky F1: “We had no radio with Max in the first run which makes everyone's lives a bit difficult. 

“That's why you see him out of the car as we are trying to fix the radio.”

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Mekies voices Red Bull caution

Verstappen ended the FP1 outing in sixth, having opted not to run the soft tyres like his rivals ahead of him.

The Dutchman enters the weekend on the back of winning his first race of the year last time out in Sepang.

With Red Bull enjoying a strong step-up in form of late, Mekies insisted that nothing is guaranteed at a fresh event.

“The trend is positive,” he said. “Monza, Madrid, Baku, Malaysia there's been a bit more performance extracted from the car every time.

"Does it mean we have a seat to fight for victory in all races? No such thing is guaranteed and we have seen many examples this year of performance variations track to track.

“We have four teams very close to each other.

"We think we will be in the good group at all races but then it's down to extracting everything."