Good and bad day for Red Bull at Hockenheim

On the face of it, Red Bull had a brilliant Friday at the German Grand Prix, with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen going fastest in a practice session each. However, the weekend could soon fall around the team's ears for a range of reasons.

RED BULL QUANDARY

Ricciardo topped the FP1 timesheets, but don't expect the Australian to be a factor in qualifying come Saturday.

Due to changes of three engine components, Ricciardo will start Sunday's race from the back of the grid, regardless of performance on Saturday - so tyre and engine saving might be the order of the day.

Red Bull had taken penalties on Ricciardo's car with a view to being more competitive at Hungary in a week's time, but they may have some unexpected pace at Hockenheim, with Verstappen ending FP2 with a new lap record of one minute 13.085 seconds under his belt.

However, there was cause for concern in the Red Bull garage as the Dutchman's session was punctured by a gear-shifting issue. Encouragingly for the team, Verstappen did make it back out on track before the end of FP2, so they will hope penalties are not to follow.

THE FIGHT AT THE FRONT

If Verstappen is hit with issues, then Mercedes and Ferrari's path to fight each other is clear.

The Silver Arrows had the one-lap advantage on Friday, with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas each quicker than Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

The caveat we bring every time, however, is that Ferrari have routinely made huge improvements from Friday to Saturday, so Vettel's gap of two tenths to Hamilton will not bother him too much as he seeks a maiden win at the Hockenheimring circuit he was born not too far from.

Vettel enjoyed the better race pace on ultrasoft tyres, compared to the four front-runners, but his long run only lasted six laps before he blistered his tyres - something we're not accustomed to seeing from the red cars.

Scorching track temperatures may be to blame here, and race day is expected to be significantly cooler.

LECLERC IMPRESSES AGAIN

Another sign that Red Bull might drop out of the fight at the front come Saturday was the performance of Charles Leclerc.

As is becoming somewhat routine, Leclerc drove a Sauber into the top 10, with the Ferrari engine perhaps bolstering him. The only non-top-three cars faster than Leclerc were the Haas pair of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen.

Advantage Scuderia?