Helmut Marko says a failed Red Bull set-up experiment is to blame for the gap between Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc during Friday practice for the Monaco Grand Prix. Leclerc topped the timing sheets after both FP1 and FP2 in Monaco, with the gap between himself and Verstappen at just shy of half a second – an almighty void around such a short lap. Speaking to RacingNews365.com and other media outlets in Monaco, Marko explained: "We are currently too far behind Leclerc in a single lap. In the long runs, we were clearly better on the Medium tyres but we now have to address the balance. "With Max, we had deliberately tried something with the set-up, but that did not go in the desired direction."
Red Bull believe they know the cause
With qualifying so crucial at Monaco, Red Bull will be searching for answers as to how they can offer Verstappen the chance to fight with the Ferrari cars on Saturday. When asked if there is a specific area of the Circuit de Monaco where Verstappen is losing that time, Marko pointed to the first sector, where Ferrari and Mercedes have both appeared strong. "In the first corner we mainly suffered from understeer, but then oversteer again. After FP1, the balance deteriorated. The changes we made had clearly not made it better," he admitted. "It's mainly in the first sector, but we believe we know the cause."
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