There's nothing like having the best of both worlds, and that's a luxury enjoyed by Red Bull this season.
The Milton Keynes-based outfit's design team – led by the legendary Adrian Newey – penned a new-generation car that has not only proved to be immune to the widespread porpoising issues that have undermined its ground effect rivals this season but has also boasted a velocity down the straights as impressive as its speed around the corners.
Those two advantages were on display at Spa's low-downforce venue, and again this weekend at Zandvoort's high-downforce circuit.
In the hands of Sergio Perez, Red Bull's RB18 breezed through the speed trap on the track's main straight at a cool 330.7 kph, with poleman Max Verstappen clocking in with the third highest top speed.
A relative oddity of the speed trap readings is the spread between Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
The latter was among the laggards in terms of maximum velocity, and yet the seven-time world champion produced a very good fourth quickest lap in qualifying, almost half a second faster than Russell who was over 6 kph quicker down the straight than his teammate.
It's hard to tell if the speed difference was caused by specific conditions or aero settings, but the Mercs do appear to be in the running for another top-three finish this afternoon.
And if a Max-fest fails to pan out - an unlikely prospect, a proper Ferrari-Mercedes shootout could be in order...
