Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo have both come away from the first two practice sessions for the Canadian Grand Prix feeling that there is more to come from Red Bull.
Vettel finished fourth in FP1 and third in FP2, but his lap time in the second session was limited due to a gearbox problem. The German driver was pleased to rank so highly on the timesheets, although he feels that the gap to Mercedes is still ominous.
“It was a bit of a shame to lose some laps,” he said. “We had something with the gearbox, but fortunately we got it checked and went out again. It meant that we were maybe a bit off the rhythm compared to some of the others, but it seemed to be alright and we still got some good laps completed.
“I think there’s still a lot if improvement we can do, the Mercedes is very quick, but it was okay as a start to the weekend.”
His lap times during his long run were just a few tenths shy of Nico Rosberg’s efforts in the Mercedes, but teammate Daniel Ricciardo was less fortunate. He finished FP2 down in 12th place, some 1.5 seconds down on Hamilton at the top.
“The driving was good today, but looking at the time sheets we’ve got some work to do,” he admitted. “We got some good references to go by and we need to put some work in tonight.
“I enjoy driving around here and there are a lot of fans in the grandstands. It seems that we’re close to some of the other teams, so we’ve just got to extract as much from the cars as we can over the weekend.”
Ricciardo’s pace during the long run was not quite on a par with Vettel’s, and he may face an uphill struggle to extend his podium streak to three races in Canada.
Despite their struggles, both of the Red Bull drivers appear to be well-placed for this weekend’s race, and a top three finish for the defending world champions is certainly on the table.