'Great Friday' for Hamilton and Russell in Singapore

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were both sounding very upbeat after a strong day for the team on Friday at Marina Bay Street Circuit in practice for this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.

Hamilton was fifth fastest in FP1 with Russell one place behind. IN the evening session, Russell improved to third and was just 0.235s off the pace-setting Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, with Hamilton P5 again.

The Mercedes was also nearly a match for Ferrari in the long run conditions suggesting good race pace for Sunday, while the dominant Red Bull team for once looked off the pace.

"It's been a great day here in Singapore," beamed Hamilton. "FP1 was solid. We were still a little bit of where we wanted to be, but it wasn't too bad. FP2 was for sure the best FP2 session I've had this year.

"It was nice to finish a Friday feeling so positive," he added. "I think we've got a good platform to build off for the rest of the weekend. It's the best I've felt from a Friday this year,

"I hope we can do some good work overnight, as we always tend to do, and continue to improve."

• Read also: Ferrari's Sainz and Leclerc stay on top in Singapore FP2

"It was a very positive Friday for us overall," agreed Russell. "The car is feeling really good around the circuit.

"It definitely improved in the cooler temperatures of FP2 but equally, it still felt decent in the slightly unrepresentative conditions of FP1.

"The times were very tight between several cars. Ferrari looked quick, particularly on the single lap. The long run performance across a number of competitors was also strong but we can be optimistic heading into the weekend.

"We will do our usual work overnight and hopefully find some improvements heading into Saturday," he added.

Both drivers gave this year's modified track configuration a big thumbs up. "I am really enjoying the new track layout," said Russell. "It makes the final sector, and the lap as a whole, much more flowing.

"It definitely improves the experience behind-the-wheel and should help create better racing on Sunday. The new track surface in turns one to five is also an improvement."

"The new track surface is great, and it made the track even more enjoyable to drive," agreed Hamilton."They have done an amazing job with the track changes.

"The removal of the four corners near the end of the lap has absolutely perfected the circuit," he said. "I love driving this circuit now more than ever."

Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin was just as upbeat as the two drivers, while saying that they had more work to do on understanding how to optimise single lap pace on soft tyres.

"It didn't feel like we were getting the most out of the compound and George was able to improve later in the run," he explained. "But the long run was quite strong.

"The performance order is interesting today. Ferrari looked fast, as do McLaren and Aston Martin. And unusually Red Bull didn't look like the ones to beat.

"We'll assume that they'll sort that out for tomorrow, which is going to mean that a lot of drivers are fighting for the top grid spots. It's clearly very close so we'll be pushing to find every little bit of pace overnight.

"We're looking forward to an exciting qualifying session tomorrow," he predicted.

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter