Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes the abrasive track surface at the Circuit Paul Ricard will "calm down" as the weekend draws on.

During the opening practice session of the weekend, which was topped by Mercedes , drivers struggled for grip and many had graining issues with their tyres.

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But Horner believes that with more F1 sessions to come, added to the support series' that will race during the weekend, the surface will become more welcoming to drive on.

"The surface is quite aggressive and I think it will calm down as it rubbers in," Horner told Sky F1 after the session. "With the support races going on as well, it should settle down a bit. In the first session, there was a lot of evolution."

Wind caught out Verstappen and Gasly

Red Bull ended up in fourth and seventh, however both Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly suffered spins during the 90 minutes of running, which Horners says was due to wind.

"The wind caught Pierre out, that was very much wind-related," he said. "Max as well got caught by a gust of wind. The cars these days are very sensitive to gusts of wind, especially crosswinds, but you don't often see that."

Red Bull seeking gains on top teams

As for Red Bull's weekend, Horner says that the energy drink squad is continuing to search for gains to reach Mercedes and Ferrari and compete with them on a consistent basis.

"We're looking to make more progress towards Ferrari and Mercedes this weekend. Montreal was a reasonable performance, certainly by Max," Horner commented. "HIs recovery from his starting spot was strong and hopefully, we can build on that here over the next couple of races.

"We're thick into the development race now with teams bringing big evolations to races," Horner added.