Verstappen confident of challenging Ferrari, but not Mercedes

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen is hopefull that his team can challenge Ferrari in Japan, but believes Mercedes are "too far ahead".

Mercedes dominated events in Suzuka throughout Friday's practice, with Lewis Hamilton being the quickest in both sessions.

Meanwhile, Verstappen ended the day splitting Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen and the Dutch driver believes that Red Bull can carry on challenging Ferrari this weekend.

"I think we can get close to Ferrari and challenge during the race but Mercedes seem too far ahead at the moment," Verstappen told Crash. "We have some work to do ahead of tomorrow as I wasn't totally satisfied with the feeling in the car today. Both short and long runs didn't feel ideal, it may look closer on paper but I know we can improve."

Verstappen was occupying a slimmer rear wing to his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in the practice sessions, with Red Bull trying to reduce the amount of time they are losing on the straights.

"I was running a different rear wing to Daniel which meant less downforce," Verstappen explained. "If we can find a compromise between straight line speed and rear grip then it will put us in a stronger position for the rest of the weekend.