'Mercedes' lead over Red Bull just 0.01 seconds'

Max Verstappen set the fastest time during the first free practice session, but had to watch the Mercedes cars ahead of him a few hours later. The Dutch driver complained a lot about his balance, which Hamilton seemed to be less bothered by.

"It was Mercedes who seemed to cope best with the conditions, topping the timesheets in FP2 with around three tenths of a second margin over championship leader Max Verstappen. But when the lap times are revised to account for fuel load and tyres, Mercedes’ advantage over Red Bull is just 0.01s – which in other words means it is too close to call."

Red Bull strong in corners

The strengths of both teams are then simple to point out. "Our data says the Silver Arrows have the edge in the slow and high speed corners with a comfortable speed advantage on the straights over Red Bull – with their rivals only quicker in the medium speed turns."