Di Resta: "Never count out Mercedes"

Channel 4 pundit Karun Chandhok has warned to not count out Mercedes for this weekend in Monaco, even though the Silver Arrows looked significantly off the pace that Red Bull set on Thursday.

In the first free practice, Mercedes looked to be gaining on Red Bull and didn't look much slower, but FP2 confirmed what many were thinking, namely that Mercedes are not up to speed to be competing for the best times in Monaco.

"They expected to be chasing in Monaco," Chandhok said when analyzing the Thursday of the German team.

"This was visible during the practice.

"However, I think that they'll come back strong.

"You can never count them out completely.

"They're also in better shape than last year."

Can Mercedes come back from today? Or is the deficit with Red Bull too big for the championship leaders? The team famously struggles with street circuits, but then again, Lewis Hamilton won on the Baku street circuit just a month ago, so who knows what will happen this weekend!