Max Verstappen has played down the impact of potential issues with his Red Bull during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Dutchman finished second to teammate Sergio Perez after a mistimed pit stop before the only Safety Car period allowed his main championship rival to take track position. But during his chase of the Mexican, Verstappen reported an apparent issue with the balance been his differential and engine braking and was unable to pull within a second of Perez. The result leaves Verstappen six points ahead of Perez who also won Saturday's Sprint race as he continued his stunning record on street circuits.
Fine-tuning the 'rocket ship'
Asked what the problems set out in his team radio messages during the 51-lap race, Verstappen told media, including RacingNews365.com : "They were not issues. There was not a problem with it. "I'm probably operating them a bit differently to Checo. And like I said, maybe I'm not using the correct settings with these new tyres and probably it was a little bit more highlighted on a street circuit where there's a lot of confidence needed on entry to mid-corner and that balance really needs to be as close to perfection basically. "I was just struggling a lot with that at the beginning and then I was trying a few things. Sometimes I didn't get it right but then towards the end I think I found the right settings from entry-to-mid-to-exit and also the team was helping me a bit and I had a few questions. "So a few things to review for the upcoming races, what we can do better operationally, but again, sometimes you have weekends where you don't need to touch the car, everything is perfect and it's a rocket ship and we still have a rocket ship but still to fine-tune."
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