There were mixed messages coming from the Mercedes drivers on Friday night at the conclusion of the opening two practice sessions in Budapest – an upbeat George Russell sounding confident of his chances heading into qualifying, while the same couldn’t be said for his team mate Lewis Hamilton…
Hamilton came into this weekend brimming with confidence after his victory last time out at Silverstone, and while he cut a relaxed figure out of the car, his joking demeanour belied some frustration at the balance of his W15 in the searing heat – with an air temperature of 32 Degrees Celsius and the track temperature hitting 60 Degrees at one point.
“[The car] felt just as bad as it does normally when it’s hot,” said Hamilton, who came home seventh in FP1 and P10 in FP2.
“Today’s not been a good day really, apart from the weather’s been good and it’s been nice to be here but we’ve not really been on form today so the car hasn’t felt good set-up wise. But I think we have an idea why and we’ll just work overnight – but not the best prep so far.”
The one positive from the seven-time world champion was that the long run pace felt “pretty decent” which at least bodes well for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
The mood on the other side of the garage was far more optimistic, however, with Russell finishing the two sessions in fourth and fifth. Like his team mate, he conceded that Mercedes have work to do overnight – singling out Lando Norris and Max Verstappen as the biggest threats at this track.
“We definitely got probably more laps in than most in the long run between FP1 and FP2,” said Russell. “McLaren are looking really quick, Lando [Norris is] flying at the moment, and I don’t think Max [Verstappen] is too far behind
“Then race runs, Lando and Max again look a little bit out in front so we need to understand, because in the hot conditions of Austria and Barcelona, we were off the pace versus those two drivers, and in the cooler conditions of Silverstone and Montreal we were ahead of those two, so something we need to work on
“[Tomorrow] I think anything could happen, excited to see what we can do. I think we’ll be in the mix again for the top four positions. Checo [Perez] seems quite quick today so that might be a bit of a surprise, having a fight there as he seems really quick, so let’s wait and see.”