Helmut Marko praises Yuki Tsunoda, who was close to Verstappen on Friday

08:17, 24 May

Updated: 08:52, 24 May

byNorberto Mujica

Yuki Tsunoda was right behind Max Verstappen when the flag waved on the second free practice. The Japanese driver set the eleventh-fastest time, but the difference between the two drivers was only two-thousandths. Afterward, Marko was pleased with Tsunoda, as he told GPblog and others.

Verstappen races with updates, Tsunoda without updates

Tsunoda's performance might be even more impressive because he was driving without the Monaco updates on his car. Verstappen did have them, and still he was only a few thousandths quicker than his teammate.

‘’It was good, he fortunately didn't make any mistakes. He was here already fast last year in the Racing Bulls car, so generally I hope the tendency is positive, is moving forward.’’

That Verstappen has the new parts and Tsunoda does not, makes it more surprising for Marko that the Japanese driver is so close to the Dutchman. ‘’It's surprising to see that even with the older spec he's basically on the same time as Max. Because Max's car is not to his liking, the understeer is much too high.’’

Verstappen was unlucky in the second free practice, as he had a lot of issues with the traffic and therefore couldn't do an undistrubed fast lap. The world champion is convinced, though, that there's improvement to come this weekend and hopes to close the gap to the McLarens.

This article was written in collaboration with Hidde Korte.