Fernando Alonso would not be surprised if Red Bull were 1-2 in the US GP qualifying, saying Sunday's race is when Ferrari will attack.
Trailing Sebastian Vettel by 10 points in the Drivers' Championship, time is running out for Alonso to find a way to beat the German to his third World title.
However, the Ferrari driver, who finished third behind the Red Bulls in Friday's practice for the US GP, is not expecting to make any inroads on Saturday.
"No surprises for us, they are the quickest out there, they have the fastest package," said the Spaniard.
"They do first and second in all the practices, first and second in all qualifying, and if everything goes normal, first and second in the race.
"In the race sometimes everything is not going normal, and we put more pressure on them on Sundays, we will take out opportunities, we will fight every lap in the race.
"We know the strong point of them, we keep repeating this every race, is the speed of the package. They are very quick.
"Our strong points are the united team, a very strong team, the driveability of our car. We try to use each of our strong points, and the important thing is to score 11 points more than them in these two races.
"I'm still convinced that we can do it, but we are not surprised when they are first and second in practice and qualifying."
And although Alonso believes Ferrari's latest updates, which include a front wing, under-nose turning vanes and a new diffuser, have pushed the team forward, he downplayed his chances of repeating his P3 come Saturday's qualifying.
"The updates, they seem to work. We are still analysing all the data from today, but the first impression is that it's all going good, so I'm happy.
"Obviously if we introduce a little step every race the others do the same, so we keep the gap more or less consistent.
"Starting third would be fantastic, but we were third many Fridays, and then on Saturday McLaren, Lotus they seem to use the potential that maybe on Friday they hide.
"It's possible that we'll have a tough qualifying. But we were seventh and ninth in bu Dhabi, and we scored three points more than Vettel. If we are better than seventh I think we can score even more points."
Related Links
Two From Two For Vettel
Practice Pictures From Austin
