Verstappen: Record-breaking Red Bull can improve

Max Verstappen says Red Bull have even more performance to deliver, after going half a second quicker than their rivals at the Monaco Grand Prix on Thursday. Daniel Ricciardo topped the timesheets in both practice sessions, putting in record-breaking lap times in each.

Red Bull have been widely tipped as the team to beat in Monte Carlo this week, notably from many in the Mercedes camp, and they made good on that billing.

Ricciardo was the only driver to dip into the 1min 11s - stopping the watch at a new record one minute 11.841 seconds in the second session.

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Although Ferrari and Mercedes' notorious engine modes are expected to close the gap in a qualifying session that is expected to see the lap record tumble further, Verstappen believes the team can be satisfied with their platform.

"Today went well from the start and it was a positive start", Max told Verstappen.nl.

"Our car has a lot of grip and is easy to drive. That's really important on a street circuit like Monaco. I'm happy with that.

"Today we haven't been on the limit yet, but we were still fast. We didn't have any set-up issues, I've got the right feeling in the car and there is still margin to improve.

"Thursday was a good day. Hopefully we can maintain this on Saturday."

Ricciardo suggested that Red Bull's untapped potential is perhaps not as great as the Scuderia or Silver Arrows, but remains upbeat as he looks to avenge the 2016 race that was taken away from him by a botched pitstop.

"It is going to tighten up on Saturday,'' Ricciardo added. "But all we can do today is try and top it and we did. A good start, both cars are strong.

"Our long run looked decent. It is not everything around here, but we seem to good in all conditions at the moment.

"In both sessions we were always fighting for the top place, me and Max, so you never know what the others will do, the other two big teams, but today was good. We can find a bit more but we are more or less there and Saturday afternoon is going to be very close.''