Verstappen says Red Bull 'making the best of it'

Max Verstappen admits that Red Bull have work to do if they're to close the gap to Mercedes this weekend.

Verstappen was over a second off Lewis Hamilton's pace in FP1 on Friday. He was unable to make much progress in the afternoon after running off track and damaging the RB13.

"I had a bit of understeer," Verstappen reported. "I ran wide and ended up on the grass which unfortunately damaged the floor and cut short the second session for me."

The team expects to complete repairs to Verstappen's car overnight in time for Saturday's free practice.

Despite the large gap to the Mercedes, Verstappen insisted Red Bull was performing as expected in Melbourne.

"We are about where I expected us to be," he said. "We're trying to make the best of it at the moment.

F1 drops 'Verstappen rule'

"Mercedes seem quick once again. They are the target to beat, but we must also do some work overnight to be ahead of Ferrari who also look strong.

"Today was about trying to find and improve the balance of the car after getting out on track for the first Friday practice of the year.

"It was nice to try the RB13 for the first time here at Albert Park," he added.

"It definitely felt faster and a bit more enjoyable through the corners.

"Being a street circuit it will improve by qualifying quite a lot which means more fun for us.

"We have some work to do overnight to make sure we are in a good position for tomorrow and can get the best out of the car.

"Hopefully we will have a good start on Sunday, then we are at the front and can make it hard to overtake."

GALLERY: all the pics from Friday's action

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.