Hamilton: 'Mercedes a lot closer than we have been this season'

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were looking very happy with how things had gone for Mercedes on Friday in the first two practice sessions for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.

Russell was second quickest in FP1, while Hamilton was fourth in the later session putting him one place ahead of Russell. Both were significantly faster than the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

For once the W15 was looking immediately up to speed on all tyre compounds, giving Hamilton confidence that he can take the fight to their Ferrari and McLaren rivals in tomorrow's qualifying session.

"It's been a good start to the weekend," he said after the end of the day's track action. "We had a productive day and were able to run all three compounds. The balance of the car felt good, and I had a positive feeling out there.

"Several other teams look quick, in particular McLaren and Ferrari, but we're a lot closer than we have been so far this season. We're not getting ahead of ourselves though, so let's see how tomorrow goes.

• Read also: Leclerc stays top in FP2 as Red Bull remain off the pace in Imola

Mercedes has been busy piling on the upgrades over recent races, and Hamilton said he could see all that hard work paying off for them at last.

"I am really grateful to everyone back at the factory for working so hard to bring these updates," he said. "We are seeing improvements in the car and our performance on track."

His positivity was shared by his team mate.

"The car was feeling great today and both Lewis and I were happy behind-the-wheel," said Russell. "We looked reasonably competitive and slightly closer to the front of the field than we looked in Miami.

"Come Qualifying tomorrow we will find out exactly where we stand in the pecking order. McLaren looked very strong along with Ferrari but hopefully we can find a bit more speed and get closer to them. As always, it will be fine margins.

"The team has done a great job to bring the updates to the car so quickly," he added. "It definitely feels like a step forward at this point. It's great to see the motivation within the team despite having a few tough races recently."

Mercedes' Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin also gave the thumbs-up from the behind-the-scenes technical vantage point. "We've had a productive day today," he reported.

"The car has been working well across the two sessions and we have been able to improve on the balance over the course of the day. The updates we have here all seem to be doing what we expect, which is encouraging.

"But the experience of the last few races has taught us that we have a fair size gap to close," he cautioned. "We are hoping to close that gap progressively with developments over the next few events.

"There's still plenty that we can work on for both single lap and long run performance in the meantime," he added. "The gaps ahead aren't that big so we'll be looking hard to find a bit of additional speed overnight.

At the end of Friday, Hamilton's best time was within four tenths of that of pace setter Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari, with Russell only just over a hundredth of a second further behind.

Both were over a tenth quicker than Verstappen and Perez, with the Dutch driver declaring that Red Bull is "severely off the pace" this weekend which will be music to the ears of the other teams in the paddock.

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