George Russell has claimed that Mercedes does not appear as competitive as recent events in the hotter conditions prevalent at the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Mercedes has entered the weekend striving to make it three consecutive victories amid recent improvements seeing it seize back-to-back wins in Austria and Britain.
However, Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin had cautioned that the hotter temperatures and a rear-limited track could work against the squad.
That materialised to be the case in the opening practice sessions at the Hungaroring despite Russell being situated inside the top five spots during both FP1 and FP2.
The Briton dropped back a place to fifth in the second hour as McLaren led the times with Lando Norris, who held a two-tenth margin over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
“It was a very hot day out there today! It wasn’t quite as bad in the car as I was expecting it to be, but I am sure that will change during the race on Sunday,” he said.
“Everyone in the garage is doing a great job working in such challenging conditions, with temperatures upwards of 35°C in there.
“We got a lot of laps in today on the long run. That is really useful data for us to go through tonight.
“It will help dictate our strategy for the rest of the weekend and inform any improvements we can make to the car ahead of tomorrow.
“The McLarens and Red Bulls looked very quick today, so we know we’ve got some ground to make up.
“We don’t seem to be quite as competitive in these very hot conditions so that is something we need to understand.
“We’re excited to see what we can do tomorrow and hopefully we will be in the mix in the top five.”
Hamilton, who ended his elongated win drought last time out at Silverstone, agreed with Russell’s assessment regarding Mercedes’ prospects heading into tomorrow.
However, the seven-time F1 champion is optimistic that the team understands where it can unlock more pace from its W15 to close the gap on McLaren and Red Bull.
“Today wasn’t our best day of the season so far,” Hamilton, who went from seventh to 10th, admitted. “The car set-up didn’t feel great, and we weren’t on our best form.
“We made a few small tweaks between the sessions but nothing major.
“We’ve got some ideas as to why the car wasn’t at its best though so we will work hard on it overnight, looking to make improvements ahead of tomorrow.
“The competitive order is very close once again out there. Whilst our single lap pace wasn’t the best, our long run was decent.
“We are still a step behind the ultimate pace at the front but will do what we can to close as much of that gap as possible for Saturday.”
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