Arriving at the end of the evening, at least in Singapore, after this first day of the weekend it would be easy to point the finger at the RedBull. The Milton Keynes team have been in the spotlight throughout the day with the situation dedicated to the budget cap which has made, and will continue for quite a while, to cause a sensation.
Setup changes
But while everyone was wondering how Red Bull had managed to exceed last year's maximum spending ceiling by as much as 10 million, free practice was held on the track. Neither the first nor the second session saw Verstappen close in front of everyone. During the FP1 the world champion had snatched the second position, while in FP2 to make setup changes to his RB18 he finished in fourth position.

Verstappen: "We are optimistic"
It hasn't been an easy day for him, nor for his team. On his birthday, Verstappen wanted to sum up the start of the weekend like this.
“It went well in FP1, while we tested a few things in the afternoon but it took time to put them on the car and then to change them again. I'd say today's results aren't very representative: we have a lot of room for improvement, so there shouldn't be any worries. We went down with the softs, yes, but it's not a reference, we have to see the data tonight. The fact that we didn't do the long runs doesn't worry me either, because they aren't very important here. Sunday counts, but qualifying is very important here in Singapore, so it's not the end of the world to have lapped very little in terms of racing. We are optimistic with a view to winning, if we weren't optimistic we wouldn't be here".
STATEMENT SOURCE: FormulaPassion