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Red Bull 'making progress' on catching Mercedes

Red Bull has made definite progress in catching up with Mercedes and Ferrari at the front of the grid, according to drivers Daniel Ricciaerdo and Max Verstappen.

But they admit that there's still a long way to go before the team is able to realistically challenge at the front of the grid.

"For now it is as expected," said Ricciardo. "We made some progress but we knew it still was not going to put us up with Mercedes.

"There were times where it felt pretty good and times when we're still trying to find our way," he admitted.

"I feel we can still perfect what we've got and get a bit more tenths out of it. We want more, but we are in line with what we predicted."

The Australian said that the start of FP2 had been a struggle on the medium compound tyres. "But we found a bit more with the softs," he added.

"The last sector was tricky. There was a big tail wind as well, so you lose the car. Front and rear it feels pretty slow in the last sector. I think that is probably the same for everyone. We just have to put it all together.

"We’re getting there, we’re feeling a bit of progress - we just need to keep fine-tuning it."

Spanish GP: Mercedes drivers stay on top in FP2

"It was a positive day," added Verstappen, who had a high-speed run-off into the gravel in FP2. He managed to keep the RB13 away from the barriers, so no harm was done.

"We are closer to Ferrari," said the teenager. "But it looks like Mercedes brought a good upgrade package. I think we are still the third team.

"I'm a little bit happier than this morning but we still need to find a bit more pace in the car and the engine."

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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.