Vers🗹tappen trailed pacesetter Charles Leclerc by just under 0.4s in second practice on Thursday, as Ferrari showed a surprising turn of pace in the principality.

The Dutchman admit🍌ted after FP2 it has been Red Bull’s “most difficult” weekend of the season so⛄ far.

“No, we are too slow,” Verstappen said after practice in Monaco. “Not just a little bit, quite a bit. We really need to find some pace because everyone has traffic so you have to look at 🥂t☂he optimal lap times or optimal sectors, and we are quite off.

“And also it didn’t feel great to drive. Normally I am quite comfortable in the car, quite easily to get to a pace but it all takes too long and just not how I like it. Maybe so far, the most difficult weꦰekend.”

Ferrari led a ꦛ1-2 in second practice, Lecler🍎c just over a tenth ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz.

Assessiꦦng the Scuderia’s turn of speed, Verstappen added: “Yeah, I am just surprised how competitive Ferrari is but I think it just shows that we are pretty weak. They’re doing very well and we are very weak, so then the offset is very big. Luckily we have a free day tomorrow so we can look into th𒐪ings. A lot of things need to change, I think.”

Sergio Perez topped the morning se𒊎ssion as he was one of a handful of drivers to run the Pirelli C5 tyre.

His best lap in FP2 was ruined by traffic, ending 🐼the session in eighth place.

Reflectin🐼g on his day, Perez felt he had gone in ꦑthe wrong direction in terms of setup between the two practice sessions.

“It was great,” Perez said. “I am just enjoying it a lot. It’s a fantastic track. We had a very good FP1. The car was feeling good theꦉn we did a couple of changes which probably took us a step back. I think we got plenty of information for qualifying come Saturday but we need to find some pace at low fuel.”