SHANGHAI, China -- Lewis Hamilton believes Red Bull will be a serious threat at Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix after seeing the pace of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo over longer runs in Friday practice.
Hamilton finished the session with the fastest time -- 0.007s ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen -- as the top four cars were split by just over a tenth of a second over one lap. Verstappen was fifth fastest, 0.341s off Hamilton, as the Red Bull once again looked like the third fastest car during quailfying simulations.
However, over the course of two comparable nine-lap runs on ultra-soft tyres to simulate the first stint of the race, Verstappen was on average 0.