Lewis Hamilton celebrated topping Friday's practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix by suggesting that Mercedes had finally rediscovered their form and were close to being right back in the mix at the front.
Hamilton was only seventh in FP1 but was subsequently quickest in the second session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya by 0.022s ahead of Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz.
"FP1 wasn't the best session for us but we still learned quite a lot," Hamilton reported after the en dof the day's tracy action. "FP2 was a lot better though and the car was feeling great.
Track temperature was a particular factor today, with conditions at their hottest in FP1 and cooling in the late afternoon. "The track was very hot, so it was tough on the tyres, especially on the long run.
"Overall, though, it didn't feel like we were too far off being right in the mix at the front."
Mercedes were buoyed by their latest package of upgrades at Montreal that put George Russell on pole for the Canadian GP. He went on to finish on the podium while Hamilton just missed out in fourth.
"We have taken a step forward with the car in recent races," he said. "We've got a clear direction of where we want to go moving forward too, and we're starting to see that feed through to our performance on track.
"Everyone has worked so hard to get us to this point and make those incremental gains," he added. "Hopefully we can continue the momentum from today into Saturday and get closer to our competitors ahead."
Russell was stop of the timing screens at the start of FP2 but finished in eighth place after hitting traffic on his crucial flying lap on the soft compound.
"Our long run pace in FP1 was competitive. In FP2 it seemed that our single lap pace was slightly stronger than our long run speed, but overall the car is feeling strong.
"It is only Friday, but it has been a while since we've been consistently at the upper end of the field. I'm feeling good and excited as this is what we've been chasing for a while."
Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin felt that the team had managed a solid first day in Barcelona.
"We made a step forward with the updates we brought to Monaco and Montreal," he said. "It's been encouraging to see that the car is working well around a track with plenty of high-speed corners.
"Our single lap pace looks competitive and quite close with several other teams.
"It's always hard to know where you stand on Friday given the range of power modes and fuel loads, but we've also had many a good first day followed by a tough qualifying session.
"We will therefore focus on improving on the feedback that the drivers are reporting and see where we end up tomorrow afternoon in qualifying."
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