Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo suspects Mercedes has the upper hand at this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, despite his team-mate Max Verstappen topping both of Friday's practice sessions.
Whilst Verstappen posted a 1:12.198 to go quickest ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and half a second up on Lewis Hamilton, there times were posted on the quicker Hypersoft, whilst Mercedes avoided using the tyre due to a limited supply. Hamilton's quick lap was therefore set on the Ultrasoft.
Ricciardo suspects Hamilton would have been capable of a quicker time than Verstappen.
"In my opinion Mercedes look really strong, the time they did on the ultrasoft was quick and on the hypersoft I think they would have been doing 1m11s," said the Australian.
Ricciardo was however buoyed by Verstappen's pace after his own session was cut short by issues and he was therefore unable to uncover the true pace of his own car.
"It’s positive that Max’s pace is good," he added. "We didn’t have the smoothest day and we had what looks like an electrical problem with the engine. We had some problems this morning which they tried to fix during lunch, but it didn’t improve so we had to try and fix them this afternoon.
"We managed to get a few laps in at the end of FP3 and I did enough to feel what the car was like. We learned a bit and I know the direction I want to go set-up wise. A bit frustrating to not get too many laps in but hopefully tomorrow will be issue-free and we will make more progress."
Verstappen believes Red Bull have some pace in hand though with more to be found overnight ahead of qualifying.
"Today was a good day, the car is working very well. I think we looked quite competitive and it was a positive start to the weekend. Mercedes was very quick, but I think we are not too far away.
"The tyres worked well, we were quite fast and to see it in the long run, we can be even faster. We are still lacking a bit of top speed, but we can make some improvements and tonight we will see what we can do. But so far everything went well and I have a good feeling."
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