Sebastian Vettel celebrates his 100th Grands Prix with Red Bull this weekend and hopes to mark the occasion by being on the most-coveted podium in Formula One on Sunday afternoon.

Vettel’s 99 previous Grands Prix with the Milton Keynes-based marque have so far yielded 38 victories and four world titles.

However, win No39 will perhaps require something special to happen. Certainly Red Bull suggested they are closer to the dominant Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg following the opening practice sessions around the streets of the principality on Thursday.

With power less of a requirement and high downforce instead the key ingredient, Red Bull may yet draw closer to Hamilton and Rosberg.

The duo still lead the way, separated themselves by just 0.032secs, with Vettel’s team-mate Daniel Ricciardo just over two tenths of a second adrift after the opening 90-minute session.

Rain affected second practice, in which Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was quickest, albeit two tenths of a second down on Hamilton’s time from FP1, and Vettel ultimately finished third, just over half a second back.

Although Vettel knows Mercedes remain the team to beat, he has not given up hope of finally ending their run of five successive wins and four consecutive one-twos.

“Mercedes were very quick in morning and we see that usually, come Saturday, they are able to pick up their pace, so we’ll try to do the same,” said Vettel. “Potentially we are a little closer here, but you know at the moment it’s all guessing.

“The big advantage on this track would be that there’s not that many straights, but we have to wait and see.

“We were obviously limited on what we could learn in terms of pace and range. We know it’s quite important to qualify in the front here, so if there is a chance then we have to use it.”