Verstappen frustrated by latest Red Bull woe: 'Pretty much useless'

Max Verstappen slated his practice day ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix as "useless" and one "to forget" after being snared by power unit issues.

Verstappen finished FP1 fourth quickest, 0.841s adrift of Mercedes' George Russell, but had to abandon the last five minutes of the hour-long run after radioing in to say, "There's something wrong with the engine. It's not nice. There's no power."

The belief was an air leak in the PU was the cause, which was seemingly remedied in the interval between sessions.

But early in FP2, which was devoted to Pirelli tyre testing, Verstappen encountered a similar issue, declaring that he could "still hear a weird noise in the engine," later adding, "This noise is very disturbing. It can't be normal."

Further repairs took place during a 23-minute hiatus after Russell crashed heavily 12 minutes in, but no sooner had the three-time F1 champion taken to the track than he was told to return as the problem had not been corrected.

It proved to be the end of his day, finishing without a time to his name and naturally expressing his bitter frustration.

"From the engine side, we are checking," said Verstappen. "I don't know exactly what it is.

"From my side, a pretty much useless day. I did like four or five laps, so not much to read into it at the moment."

Verstappen was unable to offer any insight into his feeling with the RB20 given the problems.

"I cannot tell you," he added. "I never really had a good run. Only four or five laps in total, and that's even with some long run laps in it.

"A day to forget!"

The only saving grace for Verstappen is that he is confident there will be no engine penalty should changes be required.

Although already beyond the limit for the number of engines used, and on the limit for all other components, he said: "We will be all right."