Mercedes is 'a step closer' to the top, says Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton felt that Mercedes had taken another step forward this weekend with the introduction of a major new upgrade to the floor of the W14 for the United States GP at the Circuit of the Americas.

Hamilton was third quickest in the sole practice session, and repeated that feat in qualifying to lock in a second row start for Sunday's Grand Prix.

He was just 0.139s behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc who took pole position, with McLaren's Lando Norris set to join the Monegasque on the front row for the start of the race.

Despite the wafer thin margins in qualifying - just 0.744s covered the whole of the final top ten in Q3 - Hamilton admitted that the new and improved Mercedes still wasn't quite up to the task of leading the field just yet.

"Unfortunately today, we weren't quite at the very front, but we will give it another shot tomorrow," he said, looking ahead to Saturday's Sprint Showdown and Sprint race.

• Read also: Leclerc on pole for United States GP as Verstappen falters

"I hope tomorrow we can fight for P1 again. I'll be giving it my best shot and with this crowd, I think anything is possible.

"This circuit is just incredible. It is definitely one of my favourites. It has a legendary layout, it's bumpy, and all the drivers find it very tricky. Each section is an incredible challenge.

"I have to say a big thank you to everyone back at the factory," he continued. "They have been pushing so hard to improve our car and we have taken a step closer to the front this weekend.

"I know everyone is working flat out for that and I appreciate all the efforts," he added. "I hope tomorrow we can fight for P1 again. I'll be giving it my best shot and with this crowd, I think anything is possible."

His team mate George Russell was finding the new components more of a handful to get to grips with, ending practice in sixth place and improving to claim P5 on the grid for the race.

"I can definitely feel the improvements we've made with the update, but it's been a strange Friday," he admitted. "It's been a really challenging day. I've been off the pace, and I've not been able to identify why.

"I'm pretty pleased with P5 as at some points it looked like we may not have even made it through to Q3," he noted. "My final lap was a reasonable effort; I made a small mistake at turn 1 which probably cost me a position on the grid.

"Turning to tomorrow, we can be encouraged. With the exception of Qatar, the Sprint Shootout on Saturday morning tends to go better for us. I will take all those positives and work on finding some more pace tonight."

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