“I think it started off quite well in FP1; I think the car was working quite well,” Verstappen said.

“For FP2 we wanted to try a few things, but they just took a bit longer to change. Then we wanted to try something else and, again, that took quite a long time to change again.

“We couldn’t really run a lot [so] that’s why I think it’s not really representative, what we showed in FP2. Of course, there’s still a lot of room for improvement, but it’s not the worst day.”

The Red Bull driver had a minor scare in the first session as he ran wide at turn 16, but he wasn’t the only one struggling with tarmac that hasn’t been raced on in three years.

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Sainz had a master save, while Lance Stroll wasn’t so lucky in FP1, and later Hamilton drifted into turn one.

However, the Brit indicated there was even more room for improvement as he hopes to claim his first win of the season, continuing his streak of at least one victory a year since his debut in 2007.

“It started off well. It wasn’t as great in the second session, but [it was] pretty much like every other weekend,” he said.

“The car is as it is, we were bouncing around, but it doesn’t feel like we are massively off here this weekend. We are still probably a second down, I would say – something like that.

“There’s definitely, on my side, more time [to find] – I just didn’t really get a clear lap. With the set-up I have, I have a lot of [tyre] locking, but we’ll fix it tonight and come back and give it a better try tomorrow.

“I’m hoping we can be P5, P4 – something like that. If we can get any higher, that would be amazing.”