Mercedes showed in the second free practice that it has made a significant step forward from the first nine GP races. The German team managed to secure second place with Lewis Hamilton, marking its presence in the competition. George Russell was less fortunate.
Mercedes showed in the second free practice that it has made a significant step forward from the first nine GP races. The German team managed to secure second place with Lewis Hamilton, marking its presence in the competition. George Russell was less fortunate.
The Briton has generally outperformed his teammate this season, but was unable to beat the seven-time world champion in Britain on Friday. In fact, Russell had to settle for eighth place, falling far behind Carlos Sainz, who won the practice session.
However, Russell was able to analyze the result in the Mercedes press release afterwards. According to the Briton, Mercedes has clearly improved, but still has a big step to take in lapping. Thus, the driver seems to fear a disappointing qualifying session.
"Some positive signs are there, but there is definitely room for improvement," Russell began. "We need to understand why our race pace is so much stronger than our launched lap pace, McLaren is very strong on a fast lap, but we just can't make the tires work like that. Over the course of a race, we're in a very good window, but it's always a balance."
Hamilton may have secured second place, but then Mercedes can expect some criticism. The driver felt that the quiques have yet to be resolved, meaning that there is a lot of work for his team to do to provide solutions.