Red Bull fears averted despite Hamilton dominance

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes new tests introduced in Qatar have reigned in Mercedes' straight-line advantage despite Lewis Hamilton topping both Friday sessions in Saudi Arabia.

Just eight points separate Hamilton from Red Bull driver Max Verstappen going into the penultimate round of the F1 season.

Despite losing out to Mercedes in both sessions, with Verstappen only fourth and 0.195secs off Hamilton, Horner was confident the latest rear-wing tests had made a difference to Mercedes.

Asked by Sky Sports F1 if he was "satisfied" the tests had done their job, Horner replied: “After the new test was introduced in Qatar, we’ve seen convergence on speed.

"We’ve seen very similar speeds again here so that’s encouraging and hopefully that will remain the case this weekend and next weekend [in Abu Dhabi].”

Red Bull 'diva' issues

Although Red Bull showed strong pace on both the hard and medium compound tyres, Verstappen was unable to extract the full potential on the softs.

Horner explained: “We felt very strong on the hard tyre but the softer the compound we went to, the more of a diva the tyre becomes to switch on and to get the maximum out of.

"There will be a lot of analysis going into that, out laps, preparation and all of that kind of thing.

“From listening to the comments [of other teams], I don’t think we were alone in that.

“Others were struggling to get the car into the right window, but once you unlock that you can see there is a lot of performance there.”

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