Max Verstappen is praying for rain this weekend to give him the best chance of Hungarian Grand Prix success.
Red Bull came into this weekend fearing they might not be able to match Ferrari for pace. And the first two practice sessions on Friday suggested as much, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc topping the time sheets and Verstappen a few tenths back.
With that in mind, the Dutchman hopes a little rain will help to level the playing field and give him the best chance of extending his sizeable lead in the standings even further. "I think they are a bit ahead of us and I think it will be hard for us to beat that," he admitted on Friday.
"Overnight we'll try to close the gap as much as you can and see what the weather will give us as well tomorrow. I think in the dry we can't compete so maybe in the rain we can, who knows?"
Forecasts show the Red Bull racer may well get his wish, certainly for qualifying. Heavy rain is predicted in Budapest for Saturday along with a chance of thunderstorms, setting up an unpredictable session.
And more of the wet stuff could fall on Sunday for the race itself, with the better weather saving itself for next week when the racing action is all over. If it is dry, though, Verstappen warned that his team might not be able to find the right balance for their cars.
"A bit tricky as expected around here, just trying to find a bit of a balance from high to low speed," he added. "Sometimes it works a bit better, sometimes a bit more tricky. But yeah, bit of work to do."
Team-mate Sergio Perez appeared a little more upbeat despite being even further off the pace of the Ferraris across both sessions. "I think it was a day of trying very different bits to definitely get comfortable with the car," he reasoned.
"I think we got a good idea, good understanding of the day, so hopefully [on Saturday] we can be able to show what we've learned today and that should also transform into the high fuel and low fuel pace. Hopefully with a bit of rain things can become a bit more mixed. It should mix things up fairly nicely, so looking forward to it."
