The reigning world champion dominated Friday’s running at Suzuka, finishing a comfortable six tenths of a second fastest in first practice, before again topping the timesheets in🧔 FP2. 

Red Bull endured a horrible weekend last time out at the Singapore Grand🃏 Prix as their 15-race win streak came to an end,ও but normal service resumed on the opening day of action in Japan. 

"It felt really good today. From lap one the car was enjo🗹ya𓆉ble to drive again," Verstappen said.

"It seems like we had a strong day, on short runs, long runs... There's a lot of degradation on this track, so it will be quite tough on tyres in the race. But so faဣr we had a good start to the weekend.

"It looks like it's all a bit tight behind me. Ferrari and McLaren are closeꦰ, so we'll have🌠 a look.

"But I think at the end of the day, we just focus on ourselves and try to optim🅷ise our performance. And then if we do tꦗhat, then I'm confident that we can fight for pole.”

Verstappen being happy in his car once more is ominous for his rivals, including Red Bull teammate168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Sergio Perez, wh🐼o lagged behind the Dutchman in both sessions.&♒nbsp;

Like Verstappen, Perez confirmed that Red Bull’s Singa🎃pore troub✃les appear to be a one-off. 

"We had problems💖 with the balance of the car in FP1, we tried🌞 to improve it a bit in FP2," the Mexican explained. 

"I think we have some pretty good understanding of the directꦚion we need to take.

“Certainly, things are looking a lot better than𓃲 💝they were last weekend which is positive.

"I look forward to qualifying well tomorrow because the degradation seems ꩲto be quite high aroun൲d this place, especially with the hot temperatures we are expecting.

"I do believe that we were going to be strong tomorrow⛦ and 🦩also on Sunday."