11th and 9th in the opening sessions, Christian Horner admits that Red Bull "desperately" needs Sergio Perez to up his pace and be in the battle at the front.

Though always a slow starter, and notorious for his lack of single-lap pace, Friday appeared a particularly tough day for Sergio Perez.

11th, 1.1s off the pace in the opening session, and 9th, 0.75s off the pace in FP2, the Mexican has much work to do if he is to play a part in a race which could decide the fate of one of the titles this weekend.

Like many, the Mexican was unable to get a clean lap when a the qualifying sims were underway, however even in the opening session he spent much of the hour at the wrong end of the timesheets.

"It is going to be tricky in qualifying," he admitted, "even with the traffic management, it is going to about trying to be in the right place.

"We saw that when everyone was on the soft tyre at the end it can get very tricky and very messy very quickly," he added. "Then on the long run we didn't have enough laps to get a read.

"I think there is plenty to come tomorrow," he insisted, "so hopefully we are able to find the right balance and the right pace to be in contention."

"Sergio's a slow starter," Christian Horner told Sky Sports, "but he gathers momentum, and you can see he's building, building, building.

"He's a wily old fox," he added. "He knows not to take huge risks too early on a street circuit, and I think that he's always gone well at circuits like Sochi, Azerbaijan and Monaco. I've got no doubt he's building those foundations."

However, with the title fight(s) so finely balanced it is widely accepted that the protagonists teammates are going to play a crucial role in the final outcome.

We're doing our best to support him as best we can," said Horner. "He's found some form the last few races, he's been qualifying well, racing well.

"We need that," he added. "We desperately need him to be in that battle in these remaining two races. Because having two cars, as you've seen when we've had two in play, if gives you other options. And we want to make sure that we've got both cars in play, not just one of them."

Check out our Saturday gallery from Jeddah, here.