Carlos Sainz admits he’s “surprised” by how close it is in terms of qualifying performance following Friday practi▨ce for the Forꦦmula 1 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Just over one second separated the top 16 in🔯 s𒀰econd practice in Bahrain.

The Spaniard ended the day fourth fastest overaಌll, just under 0.3s off Max Verstappen.

While it is closely matched between the t🌳eams in qualifying trim, Sainz believes Red Bull and Mercedes still have the upperhand over a race distance.

“FP1 felt fairly normal and suddenly there was a big change in wind and track conditions going into FP2,” Sainz said. “It made the cars and the balance a lot more on the edge. It brought the field a bit together a💧nd it was actually quite tricky out there.

“I think the long runs show a bit better wher෴e everyone is. You can see clearly th🎃e Merc and the Red Bull are having an advantage on the rest of the field. But also surprised by how tight the short runs were in terms of performance.”

Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc didn’t fare as well in the qualifying 💫simulati♒ons, ending the day in 12th place.

Leclerc agree𒐪d with Sainz about Red Bull and Mercedes’ advantage over the midfield.

“It is very, very tight,” Leclerc said. “I think qualifying is going to be very, very tight but this is exciting. This is what we like as drivers, to try and make the last difference on the track. I still believe Mercedes and Red Bull are still quite a lot in fro𝄹nt, the midfield will be very tight.”

Lecl🅺erc also revealed Ferrari has yet to run “flat out”, but concedes that is probably the case for the majority of the teams up and down the paddock.

“We haven’t run flat out yet, but I don’t think it’s the ca❀se for anybody in the paddoc🎃k today,” Leclerc added. “So we don’t know how much they’re sandbagging so it will be all clear tomorrow.”