A Ferrari one-two in Friday practice, Mercedes off the pace and Red Bull nowhere near on the timesheets? On paper, that looks like bad news for Mercedes, especially with Lewis Hamilton having to serve a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change. But based on a look under the skin of the lap times there's every sign that Formula 1's dominant force, presumably now led by Valtteri Bottas, should be concerned about something other than Ferrari.

Not because Ferrari doesn't show some promise, but because there's no point in worrying too much about your second biggest threat. For it is Red Bull, third-best of the top three teams in the Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago, that could have the race pace to be the main thorn in the side of the Silver Arrows.

On single-lap pace, there seems to be little for anyone to worry about coming from Red Bull. After all, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were almost a second off in FP2 - a lifetime in F1. As for Mercedes, Hamilton would have been around three-tenths faster without losing time behind Kevin Magnussen in the final corner.

About Edd Straw

Edd Straw is a former Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Autosport, who is now Motorsport Network’s Digital Content Manager.

Originally from Guernsey in the Channel Islands, he joined Autosport in 2002 having graduated from Warwick University. He went on to cover a wide range of categories from club motorsport to the World Touring Car Championship and Le Mans to Formula 3 before switching to F1 full-time at the 2008 French Grand Prix. He then became Autosport Magazine Editor in November 2014.

After becoming Editor-in-Chief of Autosport in June 2016, he took up his current wider Motorsport Network role in October the following year and continues to contribute as a writer, F1 correspondent and as host of The Autosport Podcast.

In his spare time, he was formerly a club racer whose abilities did not match his enthusiasm in a variety of categories ranging from Stock Hatch to the European Ferrari Challenge.