Lewis Hamilton satisfied with improving Mercedes in Barcelona

Lewis Hamilton was satisfied with the performance of his Mercedes after <a href="/f1/actualite/33892-grand-prix-despagne-essais-libres-2-hamilton-sommet-fiche-temps.html" title="Spanish Grand Prix – Free Practice 2: Hamilton at the top of the timesheet.

"achieved the best time in the second free practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix, crediting the changes made after FP1 for the progress made."

Fueled by a weekend in Canada that was their best of the season, the Silver Arrows seemed to be back in form on Friday in Barcelona. Hamilton set the pace with a time of 1m 13.264s in FP2, putting him two hundredths of a second ahead of Carlos Sainz.

The 39-year-old driver, while acknowledging the feeling of the W15 during the session, also suggested that the team still needed to work to stay in the fight at the front throughout the weekend.

Hamilton reflected on Friday evening, “The first session was average(F), I took a direction with the car, we learned a lot in this session. And then the second session was definitely much better. I think we made good changes and I feel very good with the car today.”

Pushed to say more about what could be possible this Saturday and Sunday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Hamilton praised the team for its ongoing work in developing the W15, link to accusations of sabotage of Lewis Hamilton’s car.”

“In the midst of the conspiracy theory of sabotage.”

« Everyone at the factory works so hard, as every year, but I think that by having more of a direction to follow, we have a much better understanding of where we want to go with the car, commented the British driver.

« And I think the progressive steps they have taken – everyone has worked so hard on building components and bringing them in consistently rather than in big chunks here and there, and for that I am truly grateful. And you start to see it in our comfort as drivers in the car, it’s great. »

George Russell optimistic for the Spanish Grand Prix

His teammate George Russell, who secured the team’s first pole position and podium of the season for Mercedes two weeks ago in Montreal, also expressed confidence in the team’s performance in Barcelona.

“I feel good,” he said. “The car is performing really well on this track. I need to take a closer look at it, obviously Lewis set the fastest time, which was really great to see.”

On the question of whether he feels stronger in qualifying or in race pace, Russell answered:

Translate: « I think that today, it’s the long relay pace. I believe we were probably the fastest this morning in the long relays and maybe not quite as fast in low fuel qualifying, while in the afternoon, the qualifying pace seemed really strong. »

« This is what we have been pursuing for a long time. We don’t want to get carried away. Lewis did a great job and a superb lap this afternoon in FP2, but we still know that in qualifying, the Red Bulls usually ramp up their performance. Max [Verstappen] will be there, the McLarens were fast, Carlos was fast, so we expect a good fight. »

The battle for pole position and victory promises to be tight this weekend in Barcelona.