Verstappen third in both sessions as Red Bull plans changes

Max Verstappen finished third in both Friday practice sessions at Interlagos, but returned to the pits with about six minutes remaining in the second session as Red Bull prepared changes to his car. The team said the remaining running was unlikely to provide useful data and expressed confidence that the car had more performance to deliver.

Verstappen reported problems with downshifts during the day and said Red Bull still needed to improve the power unit’s consistency. In the closing stages of the first session, he also struggled with the steering, describing the effort needed to turn the wheel as physically demanding. The reports do not establish the causes or technical scale of those issues.

Red Bull head of race strategy Hannah Schmitz said inconsistent long-run data had made the rest of the afternoon session less useful. She said the team had identified areas to examine and planned to work on the car overnight. Schmitz also said Red Bull expected to use a different wheel for the rest of the weekend and was considering several changes to Verstappen’s car before Saturday’s final practice.

Verstappen’s third-place result in FP2 came just six thousandths of a second behind Lando...