Max Verstappen says Red Bull has a “bit of work to do” after struggling to extract perfo🦹rmance from Pirelli’s softest Formula 1 tyre during Bahra♏in Grand Prix practice. 

The Dutchman ended up eight tenths adrift of 𝔉the Ferrari duo and over three tenths behind Lewis Hamilton’s third-placed Mercedes in second practice, while Nico Hulkenberg turned in a strong lap to go fifth fastest for Renault and ahead of Verstappen’s lead R𝓀ed Bull. 

Verstappen admitted Red Bull is heading into Saturday on the back foot having failed to get the most out of the Soft compound tyres in Bahrain, though he remains optimistic about the team’s ra𓆏ce pace. 

“It has been okay but we still have quite🌺 a bit of work 🗹to do so I am not happy with how the car is behaving,” Verstappen said. 

“We will l♛ook into the data tonight to see what we can do. 

“On the medium tyre we were really competitive. I should have been faster today ⛄but out of thꦓe final corner I had a little issue so I lost a few tenths there. 

“But then 🔯on the softest tyre I didn’t feel the grip like it should have been, so we have to look into that. 

“But on the long runs we were quite competitive on the medium tyre, I think that will be the most dom🍷inant tyre, so let’s see. Still a bit of work to do.”

New teammate Pierre Gasly was only 12th in the FP2 standings൲ and concurred with Verstappen’s view on Red Bull’s Soft tyre struggles. ꦿ;

"FP1 was good,” the Frenchman✅ said. “FP2 was good as well, but with the soft tyres we tried something and it didn't really work.

“We are still lacking a bit of pace with the soft tyres, but we will work tonight to find out for tom🌜orro𝓀w.”

Both drivers were not surprised to see Ferrar♊i return to form in Bahrain, after beating the Italian team to the podium at the Melbourne season-opener. 

"I don't know what went wrong in Melbourne but now they are ver💯y competitive again - so 💝that is what we expected,” Verstappen explained. 

Gasly added: "We knew th🎃ey would be fast, especially on this track. They have been fa🐓st every year and I think Australia was weird. But they clearly look very strong this weekend."