Red Bull celebrate 'first proper test day' but look to be far behind Mercedes

Red Bull have their wings back after enjoying their "first proper test day" of the year in Friday practice in Melbourne, although any relief at their relative progress will have been quickly tempered by the realisation that they are lagging far behind Mercedes.

Vettel had a rare off-course moment during Practice Two and Horner added: "It's software systems within the engine management system that are having to be made and upgraded to assist that [driveability]. It's not just the acceleration out of the corner; it's when you are under braking and how the system is harvesting the energy that affects the brakes and the balance and creates the car to be very nervous on entry to the corner. And there's as much time loss in that as getting out of the corner." Although Red Bull's surprise Friday form means that, unreliability or driver mistakes aside, some of the bleakest post-testing predictions for their Melbourne weekend may not now come to pass, Horner made clear that the World Champions are still very firmly in catch-up mode. "In many respects this is where we'd ideally have liked to be at the first test but that wasn't the case and we've got some ground to make up," he admitted. Just how much will be revealed over the next forty-eight hours.