Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have acknowledged the strong pace of their rivals after Friday’s practice sessions in Monaco.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz went quickest in the opening session of the day, while Perez and Verstappen ended up fourth and sixth respectively.
The reigning World Champion gave his team some momentum by topping FP2, half a second clear of Perez who set a lap good enough for seventh.
READ MORE: Verstappen heads Ferrari drivers in Monaco FP2
Verstappen edged out Charles Leclerc by less than a tenth late in the afternoon, and with Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso both impressing for Mercedes and Aston Martin respectively, pole position and the race win may be hotly contested.
Verstappen said after practice that there is “a little bit of scope” for improvement heading into qualifying on Saturday, adding that the Ferrari looks more settled than the Red Bull at present.
“I think FP1 was quite tricky,” he explained. “I was not really happy with the ride of the car on the kerbs and the bumps. FP2 was already a lot better, the car felt more competitive.
“Compared to Ferrari especially we’re still a bit lacking on the general ride of the car, how it handles the kerbs, the bumps,. the drops in camber. That’s still something we need to work on for tomorrow because you can see they are very, very close and knowing that one you go to the limit in qualifying we need a bit more to stay ahead of them.”
Expanding on Aston Martin’s pace, Verstappen said: “They’re close as well so we definitely need to build a little bit more of a buffer if we want to be ahead of them tomorrow.”
Perez elucidated that he and his team have work to do overnight to find some more pace heading into qualifying.
“It wasn’t a great day today in terms of pace in the car,” said the Mexican. “FP1 went a little bit better than FP2.
“With the changes that we did we have plenty of things to review for tomorrow. I just need to sit down with the boys and go through it and try to pick up the best bits out there because every millisecond here is going to make a difference. They are little things, there’s nothing standing out at the moment.”
The 33-year-old added that qualifying will be a “real challenge” and an “interesting session” as multiple drivers set their sights on pole.
