Max Verstappen says there is more to come from Red Bull at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix after the team topped the timesheets during Friday practice.
Verstappen and teammate Daniel Ricciardo finished the afternoon practice session first and second, although it should be noted that championship leaders Mercedes opted not to use the super-soft compound during the session. The Dutch teenager is expecting Mercedes to reveal its true pace during Saturday's final practice and qualifying sessions, but says Red Bull is also holding something back.
"[Mercedes] will be very competitive, but we will see what happens," he said. "We can definitely improve even more, but we have to wait and see what they do. So far I think we have a good car and a very good starting point."
Although Verstappen made it look very easy during Friday practice, the Belgian-born Dutch driver said there was a lot of work going on behind the scenes. "It was quite a difficult day because this track is not easy to set up the car. In first practice and a little bit at the start of the second one, you are working a lot on that and luckily it paid off at the end.
"Very happy to be first here in front of my fans, which is great. I could see a lot of fans cheering me on with their flags, it gives you a lot of motivation.
High tyre pressure prescriptions from Pirelli created problems for a number of drivers, but Verstappen said it was the same for all 22 competitors.
"It is pretty warm for us. We will have to wait and see, it was very hard on the tyres, no-one really expected it to be that hard. But it is the same for everyone so we have to analyse everything now and we have to see what we can do for the race because P2 is the most important session for set-up."