Mercedes says it is confident that it has strong race pace at Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix but is wary it risks being masked by its qualifying speed.
Mercedes displayed an upturn in performance at Zandvoort compared to last weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton 1-2 in first practice.
Hamilton dropped behind the Ferrari drivers in FP2 but his best time was within a tenth of Charles Leclerc’s pace-setting lap, while Russell was a competitive fifth.
“The car’s working better than this time last week and it’s going to be close tomorrow, McLaren will be up there and Aston Martin too,” said Russell.
“We know qualifying is our weak point and the race will come towards us – our race pace is looking pretty strong – but you’ve got to be starting in the right position.
“It was tricky out there because the timing screens were down so we couldn’t see where our long run pace was definitively but we know it’s in a relatively good spot.
“We’re closer on Friday than we’ve been in a while so that’s promising for tomorrow.”
Added Hamilton: “This is a lot better than my Sunday last week and better than the Friday too.
“It’s been a decent start to the weekend, we’ve landed in a much sweeter sport with the car, just being a very different track.
“It’s still a work in progress, we aren’t that far behind which is great to see and the car doesn’t feel too bad so we’ve got to keep chipping away.
“This track is a lot more aggressive on the tyres and we could feel some bouncing here and there but if we can make some progress overnight, which we normally do, then let’s see what’s possible tomorrow.”
