Max Verstappen gives first impressions of how Ferrari v Red Bull battle lies in Australia

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen says Ferrari may have a slight edge over his team heading towards qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.

The current world champion looks as though he is relishing another potential title fight with it appearing that Mercedes v Red Bull has now been replaced by Ferrari v Red Bull.

Undoubtedly, the Scuderia are looking strong and they underlined that again with Carlos Sainz going fastest in FP1 and Charles Leclerc doing the same in FP2.

Verstappen, meanwhile, saw his best time put him second in the final session of the day and he said that there were lots of positives to take as the day developed, but that Ferrari perhaps just have their nose in front:

“FP1 and the beginning of FP2 we were lacking a bit of balance, then for the final run we changed the car around a bit and I felt a lot happier.

“I had a car in front of me in my final lap so that didn’t help. We are a tiny bit off Ferrari, but I think over the weekend we will maybe make it a bit closer. You never know for tomorrow but so far they seem again very strong.

“We still have a bit of work to do but we are more or less there. In the long run everything looked quite stable and quite nice, so I am happy about that so we definitely made some good improvements today.

“We are in a good direction and we have to build from there and hopefully we can make some tiny adjustments also for tomorrow.”

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