Red Bull team boss Christian Horner believes the extension of Daniel Ricciardo's contract for 2019 and beyond is now a formality after Mercedes confirmed their line-up.

Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were announced within 24 hours of each other at the German Grand Prix, the former signing a two-year deal and the Finn a single-year contract with the option for 2020.

Seen as the most likely destination other than Red Bull for the Australian, with Ferrari eyeing a promotion for Charles Leclerc, now that avenue is officially closed, his own future should be sorted in the coming days.

“We’re aiming to have things finalised by the summer break. It will be good to go into the break with everything sorted," Horner told Autosport.

“We’ve got two great drivers, and they both contribute exceptionally well to the team and we’re very keen to retain the same line-up for the future.”

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Comments in the wake of Bottas' renewal have suggested that it was Hamilton who potential vetoed any thought of Mercedes considering Ricciardo and motorsport boss Toto Wolff was keen to not recreate the toxic atmosphere from the Nico Rosberg days.

The 28-year-old also revealed that the process of renewing was quick and simple.

“It was pretty straightforward, because when we spoke with the team already in 2017 and for ’18, we already had a plan for the future,” Bottas revealed.

“Based on what we’ve done before, we seriously spoke about the contract for the first time at Silverstone. It’s not that far away, and now we’re here. So it’s pretty easy.”

Lewis Hamilton has identified the optimising of tyre strategy as the key to success at the German Grand Prix with degradation high on Friday.

This weekend, Pirelli has brought the Ultrasoft, Soft and Medium compounds, skipping the Supersoft, but temperatures are higher than expected at Hockenheim with the thermometer passing 30 degrees in Practice 2.

During the race simulation, the world champion had to pit earlier than expected as the purple-striped tyre simply ran out of grip and that is concerning the Briton with little to choose between the top three teams.

"It is very close," Hamilton admitted, having been beaten by a Red Bull by a matter of thousandths in both sessions and with Ferrari right behind.

"There's lots of work to do tonight. We've been working on our starts, making sure to get a better understanding of the tyres and tyre temperatures and trying to be as perfect as we can in that area.

"Both Ferrari and Red Bull were very quick today and I think it will be very similar tomorrow and on Sunday."

With conditions expected to be only a touch cooler in the race, the key decisions are likely to be which tyre to start the race on and whether to commit to a two-stop strategy.

"The Ultrasoft is really on the limit. It's got good grip to start but needs to be driven ever so gently to keep it from blistering," said chief engineer Andrew Shovlin.

"The Soft and Medium are a bit easier to lean on which may mean that we see a range of strategies on Sunday, which should lead to an interesting race."

Sauber driver Charles Leclerc posted the fastest time in a rain-hit final practice session at the German GP which saw very limited running.

As forecast, the heavens have opened at Hockenheim with persistent rain falling throughout the final hour. Some drivers went out early, including the two Renaults, but soon returned to the pits with Carlos Sainz going for a spin at the normally flat-out Turn 7.

A prolonged spell without any action ensued as the rain intensity increased, but in the final 10 minutes, some drivers did head out with Leclerc beating the initial benchmark set by Nico Hulkenberg.

Sebastian Vettel would be next to go quickest before also spinning but it would be the Monegasque, who has been linked to Ferrari for next year, who splashed around to return to the top with a 1m34.577s.

Teammate Marcus Ericsson would move upto second ahead of Sergey Sirotkin with Vettel dropping to fourth.

Only nine drivers in total would set a time as the FIA decided not to permit the additional set of wet-weather tyres that is made available on a Friday but is at their discretion on a Saturday morning.

A potential bombshell emerged before the session that Lewis Hamilton could be a doubt for qualifying through illness. Mercedes would confirm he would drive, however, and sure enough, the Briton completed just a single lap at the end.

With conditions unlikely to change before qualifying a very eventful session appears to be in store.

Max Verstappen kept Red Bull as the surprise leaders on Friday at the German Grand Prix after pipping Lewis Hamilton to P1 in Practice 2.

The top two would both have far from ideal laps as traffic hindered the Dutchman through the Stadium and the Mercedes driver ran wide at Turn 1 but the 1m13.085s from Verstappen gave him a 0.026s advantage over the four-time world champion.

There would be a late scare for the Red Bull man, as an oil leak saw him return to the garage during the race simulation, but it was soon fixed and Max would return to the track for the final few minutes.

Mercedes and Ferrari are poised to strike on Saturday though with Valtteri Bottas within a tenth of his teammate Hamilton in third and Sebastian Vettel within a quarter of a second in fourth.

Indeed, the German seemed very at ease with his performance, likely in the knowledge that the Scuderia don't show their true pace until qualifying as Kimi Raikkonen sat fifth. 

With a 20-place grid penalty for new engine components, morning leader Daniel Ricciardo would concentrate on long runs throughout the session, finishing 13th overall.

But it was still an eventful 90 minutes for the Aussie with a spin at Turn 8 and a near-miss with Sergey Sirotkin at the hairpin keeping him on his toes.

It would allow the two Haas cars to move up one position in the afternoon though, as Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen continued as the fourth best team in sixth and seventh respectively.

Ferrari power also seems to be dominating the midfield once again too, with Charles Leclerc moving up to eighth after completing his low-fuel Ultrasoft tyre run a little later than the rest.

The two Renaults and two Force Indias all set times within the same tenth as Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon, who gave his car to Nicholas Latifi in Practice 1, completed the top 10 order.

Teammate Sergio Perez was 11th as Carlos Sainz made up for a water leak in the morning and can be satisfied with his position albeit in P12.

With a tight battle for the final places in Q3 on the cards then, the fight to make it out of Q1 also looks fierce with Marcus Ericsson in 14th but with the Toro Rosso's and Fernando Alonso all within a tenth down to P17.

There were signs of hope at Williams with both drivers reporting some progress thanks to a new front wing, although both drivers would continue to sit at the back in 18th and 19th with Sergey Sirotkin going for a trip through the gravel at the Sachskurve.

The second McLaren of Stoffel Vandoorne again brought up the timesheets as the Belgian endured a day blighted by set-up problems and lost track time.

A full list of times can be seen below:

Lance Stroll has refused to comment on rumours linking him with a seat at Force India in 2019, although admits he will be considering his options.

This season was supposed to be a key barometer of the young Canadian's progress after a steady rookie year following his controversial call up to replace Felipe Massa before actually taking the seat of Valtteri Bottas for 2017.

Instead, it has gotten lost in the mess that is Wiliams' worst season in recent history with a flawed car design that has left the team at the back of the grid and bottom of the Constructors' Championship.

With the big-money backing of his father, fashion mogul Lawrence Stroll, that is likely to give him sway, particularly at a team like Force India which is in need of big sponsorship funds as they seek a buyer.

"I want to do what’s best for me as a driver, so we will come to all the conclusions at the right time and figure out what’s best for the future," he said on Thursday.

"I don’t know yet what I’m doing or where my future is going. I’m still focused on where I am right now, what I’m doing today and we’ll see what the future holds."

The Stroll family is believed to be frustrated by the predicament at Williams, however, the team themselves insist there has been no indication of a move away.

"As far as I’m concerned we’re working very much in the present with Lance," said technical director Paddy Lowe.

"It’s true he hasn’t committed for next year. We haven’t committed to him either, so that is an open point. Where it lands, who knows.

"We would love to stay with Lance and that’s our assumption at the moment." 

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has again defended the decision to switch to Honda engines for 2019, suggesting the partnership will be more beneficial than with Renault.

The debate continues as to whether the Milton Keynes outfit has made the right call, with even Daniel Ricciardo admitting it is his main thought as he considers whether to re-sign for 2019 and beyond.

There has even been claims that junior team Toro Rosso could be used as a test bed for the rest of the season, however, looking further into the future and based on the direction the respective partnerships would have been going in, Horner believes one key factor will prove critical.

"With where we currently are with Renault, the positioning of any box, any juncture, on the engine, is dictated by their own works team," he told Motorsport.com.

"We have to accommodate whatever Renault at Enstone want to adopt. Sometimes we have to make compromises to accommodate that.

"With Honda, we will have the ability to have the discussions in advance to try to optimise the integration between engine and chassis."

While also acknowledging the Japanese manufacturer remains the slowest of the four suppliers currently on the grid, the Red Bull chief also insists the team would be no worse than they are currently.

"We'd have still won the Grands Prix we won because Honda are within one per cent of our measurement of where we currently are," he claimed.

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And the room for improvement is also seemingly greater...

"They are earlier on the curve and they have the resource and the capacity. One of the biggest issues that probably Renault have struggled with is probably the financial commitment to the R&D process," added Horner.

"Mercedes have spent a lot of money, and invested heavily, as have Ferrari.

"These power units are extremely complex and you can see now that there are still incremental gains being made with the introduction of each power unit."

Former Formula 1 driver Mark Webber believes his ex-Red Bull teammate Sebastian Vettel could still be prone to the kind of mental "meltdown" he had last year in Baku.

In the infamous incident with Lewis Hamilton, the German pulled alongside and banged wheels with the Mercedes having felt he was brake-tested as the cars prepared for a Safety Car restart.

That is just one of a number of moments Vettel has had during his career and, according to the Australian, there is a trend to when the 31-year-old is vulnerable.

"Sebastian has had those and does have those. I think he has a plan and often these meltdowns are outside our normal routine of a Grand Prix. So: Safety Cars," he told the new F1 podcast.

"Abu Dhabi [in 2012] he’s been off behind the Safety Car, hitting DRS boards. We saw Azerbaijan. So it’s amazing how he has this maximum intense focus and concentration that he can do.

"Winning off pole off the front, breaking the DRS, that was his signature punch. He was deadly with that. But as soon as there was another complication that became a little more tricky."

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Webber also recalled his first run-in with Vettel at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji when, in appalling conditions, the pair collided behind the Safety Car while running second and third.

"He just absolutely harpooned the back of me, Sebastian and I went out. I know Seb was bawling his eyes out after that, he was shattered," he said.

Then only 20, he was given a 10-place grid drop at the next race for the incident, only to have it rescinded as new evidence showed Lewis Hamilton, who was leading, acting inconsistently during the Safety Car period.

Haas driver Kevin Magnussen has compared Fernando Alonso's comments over the radio to the World Cup theatrics of footballer Neymar to suggest they are overhyped.

The two drivers found themselves in each other's space on several occasions during the British Grand Prix weekend in practice and the race with the Spaniard accusing the Dane of "dangerous driving".

However, in both instances, the stewards did nothing and in Magnussen's view, that proves his point about the McLaren driver.

"He does complain a lot on the radio, but, I mean, we see it other sports as well," he said at Hockenheim on Thursday. "Even great athletes like Neymar and stuff, they exaggerate a bit."

In response though, the 36-year-old had very little interest in what K-Mag had to say.

“Nothing really to say, the past is the past,” he claimed. “I got the eighth place in the last laps so I was happy with that, the result didn’t change and the FIA thought differently that weekend.

“We move on. Everyone will race differently in their careers and I am very happy with my career and my results.

“I am a two-time world champion and he’s trying to get some points so I can’t answer everyone’s comments.”

Max Verstappen has conceded Red Bull didn't expect to be as competitive at the German Grand Prix as their performance suggested in practice on Friday.

Following a disastrous Silverstone weekend, the Anglo-Austrian would lead both sessions at Hockenheim with the Dutchman setting the fastest time of the day in the afternoon, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes.

As expected, it was in the technical areas that the RB14 had the edge over both the Mercedes and Ferrari but while satisfied, Max wasn't getting too ahead of himself.

"A pretty good Friday," he assessed. "The tight parts of the track, Sectors 1 and 3, feel good and I think our pace shows in these areas.

"We have a good balance with the car which shows by topping FP2. It was a nice surprise to start so competitively here but we have to remember it is only Friday - the others will be quicker for qualifying

"[But] certainly a better than expected start. We are looking competitive ahead of tomorrow."

The only blip came with a stoppage during the race simulation to complete the afternoon which was linked to the engine, but a quick fix of the issue put those fears at rest.

"We lost a few laps due to a small oil leak this afternoon but I managed to get a few laps in at the end of the session to make sure everything was fine," Verstappen explained.

"I haven’t had a chance to do a proper long run yet but the feeling is good for now," he added. "Let’s hope we are in a similar position or at least close tomorrow.”

Ironically, the 20-year-old's lost race sim was countered by teammate Daniel Ricciardo only focusing on long runs as he prepares to start at the back of the grid due to engine penalties.

"We are looking quite good but obviously, I will be starting somewhere down at the back on Sunday due to the engine penalties," said the Australian.

"I’m actually pretty excited to come through the field and have a bit of fun. For me, it will be satisfying and for everyone watching it should be pretty fun as well."

Sebastian Vettel is well beyond being bothered about Lewis Hamilton's initial claims of "interesting tactics" by Ferrari at the British Grand Prix almost two weeks ago.

A clearly unhappy Mercedes driver stormed out of parc ferme feeling hugely aggrieved after being hit by Kimi Raikkonen on the opening lap, before later hinting there was perhaps more to it than a racing incident.

The next day, cooler heads prevailed and Hamilton took back his comments and accepted the Finn's apology but that didn't stop Sky Sports from bringing it up on Thursday at Hockenheim.

“I think it’s fine,” he said. “Obviously it was silly to say it but we are racing, we’ve all been there and it’s never great if you are hit without doing anything wrong.

“It’s also fine to express your opinion even if it’s not right or reasonable. It’s human, so I think it’s fine.”

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Vettel also welcomed the news of his main championship rival's new contract at Mercedes, meaning both drivers are now signed to their respective teams until the end of 2020.

“Congrats!” he said. “I don’t know why it took so long but I think it was pretty clear.

“You want to fight the best and Lewis has been one of the best since he entered Formula 1. It’s good to be there.”