Mercedes enjoyed a positive day’s running in Monaco on Thursday, with both Nico Rosberg – who topped FP1 and FP2 – and Lewis Hamilton believing they’ve improved their race pace.
“A very productive day for us,” said Rosberg. “We completed a lot of laps and I feel comfortable in the car. It seems that we are quick again on one lap but we have been working hard again to make improvements to our race pace.”
He did however admit that it’s too difficult to tell where they are when compared to their rivals.
“It will be interesting to see where we are compared to the others over the weekend as it’s not really representative today.”
Hamilton meanwhile is hopeful that he can enjoy a better race than he did in Spain, but admitted he must up his game on Saturday after being beaten by his team-mate at the last two races.
“It’s been a positive start for us today and I’m pleased with what we have achieved here in Monaco,” he said. “We did some good long run work this afternoon and the supersoft tyres seem to be performing well.
“I need to improve my one lap pace however, partly with the balance of the car and partly from me. The car is almost there and the pace looks good so we’ll look at the data tonight and work on those areas which can still be improved before the weekend.”
One of their main rivals and current championship leader Sebastian Vettel, wasn’t too happy with his day in the Red Bull.
“I think generally it was okay,” he added. “Unfortunately we lost quite a lot of time in the afternoon while we were making some changes, but that can happen on Friday, or in this case Thursday.
“We’d like to be a little bit more competitive, so we need to try and find some more lap time. We had a KERS issue this afternoon, so I didn’t use the system during P2.”
