Max Verstappen expects Mercedes will overhaul McLaren as Red Bull’s closest ꩵrival ꧒at this weekend’s Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Th♔e Dutchman continued where he left off in pre-season testing, topping both practice🍒 sessions.

Verstappen was a tenth cle♋ar of Lando Norrisꦗ during second practice, with reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton a further tenth back in third.

Even though McLaren was Red Bull’s nearest challenger during Friday practice,꧋ Verstappen still sees Mercedes as the main threat.

“I don’t think it is so,” Verstappen said when asked if McLaren is Red Bull’s closest riva🐎l in Bahrain. “I still expect Mercedes to be the strongest Mercedes-powered car.”

Reflecting on the day as a whole, Verstappen added: “Yeah it’s been a good day again. of course, wi✅th the heat, n﷽ot easy to find a really good balance around the whole lap. I think it’s a positive day.

“Of course there are still things to look into what we can look better for tomorrow, but again, also tomorrow, I think it’s going to be ev🌟en more windy so that will be even more difficult to dr♛ive. That’s the same for everyone, so we’ll see what happens.”

Sergio Perez’s first c💮ompetitive outing 𓆏in Red Bull colours at a grand prix weekend ended with him classifying tenth overall, 0.6s shy of his teammate.

Perez was happy with his performance on the longer runs but admits 🅰he has work to do ahead of qualif🐷ying on Saturday.

“It feels great to finally get into a race weekend and I’m pleased so far with how things are going. I’m settling in well a😼nd taking some steps f🧸orwards,” Perez said.

“If I were to summarize today, I’ve got some work to do on the short runs as over one lap I don’t quite feel the car is within me just yet and I still have to think about what the car is doing, but in the long runs I’m more comfortable and I🅠 think the pace is there so that’s positive.

“I think we have some work to do on the sof🧜t tyre as there is also room for improvement there, but the car is performing well, we have good pace and tomorrow it will be pretty clo🌠se in qualifying so we need to make sure we get it right and have a good start to the season.”