Verstappen worried about Alonso threat: We need something to stay ahead of them

Max Verstappen says Red Bull will "need something more" to stay ahead of Aston Martin, after Fernando Alonso showed threatening pace during Monaco Grand Prix practice.

The Red Bull driver complained that his car was "unbelievably difficult to drive” throughout the tight and high speed sections of Monaco in FP1, with him also visibly struggling with the clutch coming out of the pit box.

His fastest lap only good enough for sixth quickest in FP1 and nearly a second off Carlos Sainz on the Medium tyre.

The team made a setup change for the second practice session to make the rear more stable, which enabled Verstappen to extract more lap time when they switched to the Soft tyre.

He went fastest with a 1:12.462 by just 0.065s from Leclerc, however there was still more to come from Sainz after he crashed in the closing stages and Alonso who was largely hampered by traffic on his runs.

Verstappen: Ferrari and Aston Martin are very close

The Dutchman conceded that his car was "much more competitive" in FP2 compared to the earlier session, but admits there is still more time to find as they look to keep Ferrari and Aston Martin behind.

“The second free practice was much better than the first. The car was much more competitive," said Verstappen via Verstappen.com.

"Compared to Ferrari, we are still a bit short in terms of how the car behaves on the kerbstones and bumps. That’s something we need to work on for tomorrow, because you can see they are very close.

"The Aston Martins are also close, we need something more to stay ahead of them.

“The car was better to drive, so then you can push more and get closer to the guardrails. Overall, it was a difficult start, but a good ending."