Max Verstappen wasn't surprised at Red Bull's continued hefty deficit to Mercedes on Friday ahead of the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

The Dutchman ended practice fourth fastest at Silverstone just behind his former teammate Daniel Ricciardo, as the Australian put Renault in the mix at the front of the midfield.

And with the gap to Lewis Hamilton in P1 sitting at 0.8s, Verstappen admits his eyes will likely be more behind him than in front this weekend.

“I think it could be quite close in qualifying with the group behind but then in the race, it could be quite lonely again,” he said.

“The gap to Mercedes last weekend was big, so of course I think it’s quite normal that we can’t magically change things within a few days but we are doing what we can.

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“We did everything we wanted to today so I’m pretty pleased with that and overall it has been alright," Max added.

“We tried a few things with the car, I think some were really decent, but we will of course have to go through it properly tonight and see tomorrow.

“The softer tyres had a lot more degradation today and I think it’s almost impossible to do a one-stop race now. I guess you will see a lot of two-stop strategies in the race but I don’t expect the change in tyres to really set the order any differently.”

The tyre pessimism was matched by Verstappen's teammate Alex Albon, who believes the decision to try and spice up this weekend's race through less durable compounds is the wrong one.

“I think it’s not a great choice by Pirelli,” said the Thai driver.

“The soft tyre is too soft for this circuit and I think the medium was quicker today than the soft.

“I think almost everyone was quick on the mediums. If you look at the track evolution, if you were quicker on the softs it was only by a tenth.

“The problem is we don’t have enough mediums and hards for the weekend, so you’re a little bit stuck with strategy. I think tomorrow it will be quite important choosing the right tyre at the right moment for Q1, Q2 and Q3."

As for his own pace, Albon continues to lag behind in P11, half a second behind his teammate.

“I’m still struggling with getting what I want from the car but it feels like progress," he said.

"Everyone seems pretty quick, so we just need to do some homework tonight and come back stronger tomorrow.”