Ricciardo has outqualified Verstappen in each of their three races together so far with the Dutchman crashing out of Q1 in Monaco. The average gap at the other two races has been 0.328s, but Verstappen expects to get closer to his team-mate as the season progresses.

“Well he’s definitely very quick,” Verstappen said when asked if he has been surprised by Ricciardo’s pace. “I don’t know, it’s something which I also expected to be honest.

“I’m still very new in the car and it will only get better. I already feel pretty good and like I said it will get better time by time, race by race. Like I said the races are going very well.”

And Verstappen believes his race performances – where he has beaten Ricciardo on two occasions – show he has the ability to find the time on a Saturday.

“Well I feel comfortable it’s just with the set ups and stuff you are just experiencing new things on new tracks with that car. So it’s getting better in general, I think in terms of race pace it’s very positive so far, so that means I think that the setup we have works in the race.

“Now I just need to find a way to get a bit more out of it in qualifying. At the end you score the points in the race so you have to make a bit of a compromise in that.”