Mercedes were the favourites ahead of the Grand Prix weekend in Bahrain. They were the fastest during the free practice sessions on Friday, but team boss Toto Wolff remains cautious. He thinks Verstappen can play an important role on Sunday.
Verstappen was three tenths behind Lewis Hamilton in the second free practice session but his speed on the long runs looked good, according to Christian Horner. That indication is confirmed by Wolff, who says the following to the German branch of Sky Sports.
“We had quite a test program with the new tyres, and of course that changes the usual process, so in the end, we had little time left for a long run. On the long run, it is difficult to estimate but Verstappen was the fastest, followed by Valtteri and Lewis, so everything was fine," Wolff said.
Verstappen is targetting the race
Verstappen has already indicated that he will focus fully on the race in Bahrain. His experience is that the tyres wear out very quickly here, especially this weekend. Whoever can best keep it together on Sunday, has a good chance of victory.
This article was written and originally published by Pelle on the Dutch edition of GPblog.com.