Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is not reading too much into the practice sessions, which were dominated by Mercedes in Suzuka and believes that Ferrari are a lot closer to them than people think.
Lewis Hamilton dominated the two practice sessions in Japan, with nine tenths the gap between him and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in FP1 and then eight tenths the following session.
However, Wolff isn't reading too much into the big gap and once he's looked at the data - Wolff believes Ferrari have some more pace to unleash later in the weekend.
"They are turned down (the engines) a bit," Wolff explained to Sky Sports F1 following the second practice session. "We are actually losing a bit through the Esses, the fast corners. I think probably the lap time flatters us a little bit but we'll see how it is in qualifying tomorrow.
In the morning, they were quicker through almost every corner but they had a softer tyre. When we have both the softer tyre, we are gaining a little bit in a straight line and that makes me really doubt whether they've shown the whole performance.
"Through the Esses, they are a bit quicker and the rest is us, so it's neck and neck even though the lap time seems to show a larger gap."
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