Horner: Positive things in the pipeline to reduce the gap

Of all the Formula 1 teams heading to for the summer break Red Bull are arguably the ones with the most bragging rights as they have emerged as the second force in the sport's pecking order, with Mercedes firmly in their sights.

The fact does not escape team chief Christian Horner who declared, "Our objective is to close that gap further to Mercedes ahead."

"You've always got to look ahead rather than behind. We've had great performance at a variety of circuits from Austria to Silverstone to Budapest and Germany."

"They are four very different venues, four different surfaces and that bodes well for the second half of the season. There are some races on the calendar which will hopefully be favourable to us."

Mercedes seem to have power in reserve to crank up during qualifying which gives them about a half second advantage to their rivals, but on race pace Red Bull appear top have reduced that gap to around a quarter of a second.

After the break Red Bull will have some extra development bits and pieces to bolt on to the RB12s of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.

Horner revealed, "We still have a few bits that we can tidy up on the car which are on the pipeline, which were kicked off some time ago. There is still progress going on with the engine with drivability."

"There are positive things in the pipeline which can hopefully help us to try and close that gap further," added the Red Bull team principal.

The energy drinks outfit lie second in the constructors' championship standings with 256 points, well adrift of the dominant Mercedes team, but notably ahead of Ferrari by 14 points after a double podium last time out in Germany.

In the drivers' championship standings Ricciardo is third behind the Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, with Verstappen sixth and the only non-Mercedes driver to win a race so far this year thanks to victory at the Spanish Grand Prix in May.