Hamilton notes “progress” but judges Red Bull “still ahead”

Dominated last week on the Red Bull Rings, Mercedes blames its Austrian rival. If this morning, Max Verstappen confirmed the good form of Red Bull on home soil, it was the silver arrows who monopolized the first two positions in FP2. 

“Red Bull didn't show everything, they still have power I'm sure, have fun Hamilton. We made some progress today but I think they're still 2 tenths... maybe 1 and a half tenths ahead. We improved but not enough to close the gap to Red Bull. »

Same story for Valtteri Bottas who estimates that the straight line deficit is still as significant.

“It’s always fun to come and ride here, even two weekends in a row! admits the Finn. Of course Red Bull is still in front of us but we are trying to reduce the gap as much as possible. Today, we did 1 and 2 but these are only tests, we don't know the program of the other teams. The feeling with the car is better than last week but they are still performing better than us on the straights. The tires will be different than last week, there will be less overheating, which can help us. We'll see how the weather develops over the weekend. »

Rain is expected on Sunday during the race but we saw it clearly last week, it is very hard to trust the weather predictions.