Verstappen assesses Red Bull's first week of F1 winter testing in Bahrain

Max Verstappen gave his assessment of where he believes Red Bull are after the first few days of winter testing in Bahrain came to an end.

The four-time World Champion took to the track for just the morning session on Friday, but his 1:35.341 was good enough to finish P5 by the end of the day.

At the top of the timesheets were the two Mercedes, with Kimi Antonelli over two-tenths clear of teammate George Russell, while Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top three despite bringing out a red flag.

Red Bull impressed on the first day of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, with Verstappen completing 136 laps across both sessions. Some issues hampered their progress the day after, leaving a hopeful Dutchman looking for further improvements going into the second week of testing on February 18-20.

Max Verstappen in action at the Bahrain International Circuit - Photo: Race Pictures

"We did a good amount of laps on the first day, so we're happy with that. We basically completed a lot of things that we wanted to test with the power unit and also with the car," the Dutchman stated on Red Bull's Instagram account.

"Then today, it was just a continuation of that, plus already trying to explore a little bit more in the car in terms of setup just to understand a bit what to do with the car, because it's all so new, new tyres also, so there's a lot of stuff that we still want to be better at.

"I guess this morning we learned a lot again of what worked, what didn't, and again, it gives you a few more ideas also for the afternoon with Isack, and then also next week to try a few more bits."

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Despite topping the timesheets at the end of the first week in Bahrain, Russell was quick to shift attention back to Red Bull.

Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff described Red Bull and their new power unit with Ford as the "benchmark" for the rest of the teams to chase after, and Russell mirrored those thoughts.

“They're not just a small step ahead. You're talking in the order of half a second to a second in deployment over the course of a lap. So it's pretty scary to see that difference," the Brit said after his Friday session in Bahrain.