Max Verstappen says Red Bull has a “bit of work to do” after struggling to extract performance from Pirelli’s softest Formula 1 tyre during Bahrain Grand Prix practic🔥e. 

The Dutchman ended up eight tenths adrift of the 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 ahead𒅌 of Verstappen’s lead Red Bull. 

Ve🎀rstappen 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 remain⛎s optimistic about the team’s race pace. 

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

“We will look into ཧthe 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 the final corner I had a little issue so I lost a few tenths there. 

“But then on the so🔯ftest 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 wer🧔e quite competitive on the medium tyre, I think that will be the most dominant tyre, so let’s see. Still a bit of work to do.”

New teammate Pierre Gasly was only 12th in the FP2 standings and concurred with Verstappen’s view on Red Bull’s Soft tyre strugg𝄹les. 

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

“We are still lacking a bit of pace with the soft tyres, but we wil🐷l work tonight to find out f🦩or tomorrow.”

Both drivers were not surprised to see Ferrari return to form in Bahrain, after beating the Ita𓃲lian team to the podium at the Melbourne season-opener. 

"I don't know what went wrong in Melbourne but now they are very competitive again - so that is wh♍at we expected,”🦋 Verstappen explained. 

Gasly added: "We knew they would be fast, especially on this track. They ha🌳ve been fast every year and I think Australia was weird. But they clearly look very strong this weekend."