Verstappen: Mercedes will come back

Although Max Verstappen was delighted with his P1 in Belgium on Friday, he suspects Mercedes will be very competitive come Saturday’s qualifying.

The Red Bull racer topped Friday’s second practice at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, a track that is some 50 miles from where he was born.

He posted a 1:48.085 on the supersoft tyres to beat team-mate Daniel Ricciardo by 0.256s.

However, Red Bull were helped to the 1-2 by Mercedes’ decision not to put in a supersoft tyre run.

As such Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton were P6 and P13 respectively.

Verstappen, though, has warned they will come back.

“For sure they will be very competitive,” said Verstappen. “We will see what happens.

“I am sure Mercedes will come back, they are very strong but in the end it was a very positive day.

“I don’t know where they are. We are very close but we have to wait and see.

“They will be very competitive and some others teams are very competitive so we have to wait and see.”

Asked whether he was dreaming of perhaps beating the Mercedes drivers to pole position on Saturday, he replied: “I never dream. I just want to work, and then we’ll see where we end up.”