Red Bull: Mercedes Friday pace ‘impressive’, Ferrari ‘underdelivered’
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says the pace shown by Formula 1 rivals Mercedes during Friday practice for the season-op🃏ening Australian Grand Prix was “impressive”.
Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton set the pace on the first day of competitive running in 20ไ19 and topped both sessions in Melbourne, with the five-time reigni🀅ng world champion ending up eight tenths clear of Red Bull in FP2.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says the pace shown by Formula 1 rivals Mercedes during Friday p🎐ractice for the🀅 season-opening Australian Grand Prix was “impressive”.
Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton set the pace on the first day ဣof competitive running in 2019 and topped both sessions in Melbourne, with the five-tﷺime reigning world champion ending up eight tenths clear of Red Bull in FP2.
With Red Bull and Ferrari seemingly yet to showℱ their true ༺pace, Horner was left impressed by Mercedes’ headline-grabbing times, while he felt Ferrari had “underdelivered” after looking particularly strong during pre-season testing.
“Mercedes looked quick in that second session, the times that🐈 both their drivers turned out looked pret⛎ty quick,” Horner told Sky Sports.
“Ferrari look like they underdelivered to what we thought they had in te𒁃sting and our guys both had pretty decent runs.
“Max got quite a bit of traffic on his fast laps so I think there’s quite a bit of po𝕴tential there, theไre’s more set up changes to come and we don’t know what fuel loads people are running but looks interesting.
“On the longಞ runs we look pretty sensible and I think the one lap pace of the Mercedes in that session looked pretty impressive, but the car looks stiff and difficult to drive so whether that’s sustainable for a grand prix I💮 don’t know.”
Versta🍨ppen and teammate Pierre Gasly were third and fourth quickest after the qualifying simulation runsꦬ in the afternoon, one tenth clear of the fastest Ferrari driven by Sebastian Vettel.
Asked if he felt Red Bull was really quicker than 🦄Ferrari, Verstappen replied: “I don't know, we'll find out tomorrow, but we can on🦄ly look at ourselves.
“We for sure have some things to imp๊rove, but I think everyone has, it's the first day, you start here. It's bee𓆏n alright.
“The Mercedes looks very quick. We've got ꧑lots 🎶of work to do and for sure we'll analyse a lot.
“I think in general the car felt alright,🍸” he added. “From the engine side, no problems. They just went very smoothly and things were good.”
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for mahbx.com around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in ♈the sport.
