Mercedes had been sending out positive messages on Friday after a strong performance by George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in free practice for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.
But it was tougher going for the team on Saturday, with Russell fifth fastest in final practice and ending up sixth in qualifying, while Hamilton was lucky to make the first cut in Q1 and ended up P8 on tomorrow's grid.
Despite this, both men said that the latest upgrades on the W15 had been a step forward compared with their performance sin the first six race weekends of the 2024 season.
"The car is feeling much better than it has done in recent races," he said. "Of course it is all about lap times, so we just need to keep working away and improving. We've seen how others have progressed and that gives us encouragement.
"I was very happy with my final effort in Q3," he continued. "It was a really strong lap, and overall it was a good session from my point of view.
"It is obviously annoying when you are one millisecond behind one of your competitors, but I think that was the maximum we had today. I think P6 is therefore a fair result.
"It's very difficult to pass here so unfortunately, I'm not forecasting lots of overtakes tomorrow. I hope to be proven wrong though and we can gain some positions.
"George did a great job," commended Hamilton. "For him to be only four tenths off pole is clearly a good step forward for us. Unfortunately I was just lacking some pace so couldn't quite match that.
The car felt really good on Friday, but today I was struggling to find that same level of grip. It was frustrating and I think the small changes we made going into qualifying had quite a big impact.
Tomorrow we are likely looking at trying to make up a few positions," he continued. "We will do some work tonight to see if we can improve anything but it's very hard to overtake here so.
"Unless something out of the ordinary happens, we will only be able to make small gains," he conceded.
Team principal Toto Wolff was also looking for the silver lining to the Silver Arrows performance today. "When you look at the gap to the front, and our closest competitors around us, you can see progress.
"P6 and P8 are not the positions we want to be, we've been saying that for a while," he admitted. "Even though our positions today are not good enough, we are pointing in the right direction.
"We can see the advantage others have closing. It takes time to do that, so we must be patient. That's the reality at the moment," he said. "We know we have developments in the pipeline that will improve the balance of the car.
"Tomorrow, we will be focused on maximising the package we currently have and aiming to score some decent points."
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