Lewis Hamilton, not practice pacesetter Max Verstappen, is being identified as the man to beat after his performance on Friday at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The world champion entered the weekend with some concerns after Mercedes abandoned an engine upgrade at the last minute citing a "quality issue", leaving him to use the same unit which has already done the first six races and could be at higher risk of failure.

Then, across the two sessions in Montreal on Friday, his best time was only good enough for fourth fastest, almost six-tenths down on the leading Red Bull driver.

However, it was set using the Ultrasoft tyre compound, compared to Verstappen on the faster Hypersoft, as the Brackley-based team hopes to use a different strategy this weekend by focusing on the Ultra and Supersoft rubber in the race.

Therefore, given Hamilton's pace on Friday is pretty much level with the Dutchman when tyre corrected, for Daniel Ricciardo, given the much longer lifespan of the Ultrasoft, that is a big worry.

"I would say that Mercedes' pace was really fast today, even on the harder tyre, they were still doing pretty good lap times," he was quoted by Motorsport.com.

"I think they'll be at this stage hard to beat, but I think we can still improve the car a lot, do more laps, learn a bit more and I think we'll be okay.

"I guess the fight will be with Ferrari, too early to really know, but I'm sure Mercedes will be really fast tomorrow afternoon."

Qualifying is also the main weakness for Red Bull as Mercedes and Ferrari turn up their engines, and despite an upgrade from Renault this weekend, even teammate Verstappen concedes pole will be a tough ask despite his Friday pace.

"It's still difficult to say because you're not going flat out on the engine yet," he claimed. "I think Mercedes will be very strong again.

"Our car works well, but whether that will be enough in Q3, I don't know."

After Mercedes decided to delay their new engine, many anticipated Ferrari would be the team to beat as they have had to edge in a straight line this season.

However, after struggling to find the right setup on his car, Sebastian Vettel was writing off his chances of victory.

"Today we're not the favourites," the German said. "Kimi [Raikkonen] I think was happier on one lap so probably he's one of the favourites, I'm not, but we'll see tomorrow.

"I don't know, I haven't seen much of the times of the others so it's difficult to read yet.

"I think we need a little bit of time to understand the full picture but as I said I'm not yet happy with the car.

"If that comes together I think we can do quite a big jump and then hopefully the engine and putting it all together will help us to be there tomorrow."