Red Bull believe a tight battle with Mercedes is in store after rain disrupted running in Friday practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
An initial dry spell in the afternoon session allowed Pierre Gasly to set the quickest time as the only leading driver to use the soft compound tyre.
But it was arguably Lewis Hamilton who appeared the strongest having been fastest in the morning and finishing less than two-tenths behind in third using the hard compound before the rain in the afternoon.
“It was strong for us on the dry and the wet,” Gasly said post-session via Crash.net. “So far I am happy with the car on the few laps we did, so let’s see what we can fight for tomorrow.
“I think Mercedes was really fast in FP1 and also in FP2, Ferrari I don’t really think they showed their true pace, but we know they are going to be there in qualifying.
“I think it’s going to be pretty tight tomorrow but with the conditions the same and quite unpredictable, not too much to think about now, we’ll see tomorrow what happens tomorrow.”
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As for teammate Max Verstappen, he was only half a tenth down on Gasly using the medium compound and showed very strong pace in the wet running in the second session.
“Initially I was happy in FP1, then we tried a few things, which I was not so happy about, so I was just having a really strong front-end and losing the rear,” he reflected having spun twice in the morning.
“I think it’s important to test those things because then in FP2 my car was again in a nice balance so we seem to be competitive.
“I still expect Mercedes to be a little bit ahead of us but I think tomorrow will be an interesting day.
“It’s difficult to say of course but I think it’s close, it’s all pretty close.”