Verstappen: We looked stronger in the long runs

Mercedes clearly found some pace, perhaps through a combo of updates, softer rubber and conditions at Red Bull Ring which saw Lewis Hamilton end the day quickest, ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas and then Max.

Verstappen said in his team report: “From our side, we didn’t have a perfect run in FP2 but nevertheless I felt good in the car and there are no real problems.

"Mercedes looked quite quick on the soft so we just have to make sure we have a little more pace on that compound because we looked stronger on the medium and in the long runs, which at the end of the day is the most important for the race.

"We also tested the new Pirelli prototype tyre which seemed to be fine. It did get quite greasy out there but luckily it was good enough to keep on driving so we had a good read on the long-run pace.

"It will be tight again this weekend as it looks like Mercedes improved a bit but we will see tomorrow in qualifying and the most important thing is to make sure we look after the softer compounds in the race," added Verstappen who leads the championship.

As has become his custom, Sergio Perez took the first day to get into a rhythm, ending day one a lowly 11th but like Verstappen was happy: “The long runs were definitely more promising today but there’s still a lot of work to do.

"Both sessions were quite tough and I’m not feeling fully comfortable with the car on the softer compound yet. We need to analyse the data tonight to try and get the pace back to where we would expect it to be, ready for qualifying tomorrow.

"We seemed to be quite far away from the balance with the low fuel but we corrected that quite quickly, we were also seeing less degradation on these tyres too which is good. It’s good to see Pirelli bringing a new tyre to test this weekend before we use them at Silverstone.

"Overall, I learnt a lot from today and it’s great to see all of the fans here at the Red Bull Ring and hopefully we can have a good qualifying tomorrow and a solid race on Sunday," added Perez.

The Mexican lies third in the championship standings ahead of the race in Austria on Sunday; between then and now he will need to find a second, or so he lacks to Verstappen, to be where he is needed at the sharp end of proceedings.