After a weekend to forget at the Belgian Grand Prix, a promising start to this weekend has lead Lewis Hamilton to claim that his W13 is ‘in a much sweeter spot’ after the seven-time FIA Formula 1 World Champion finished both practice sessions for the Dutch Grand Prix inside the top three.
Hamilton finished first practice second fastest, just over two-tenths of a second behind his teammate George Russell, who led the first practice session of the weekend.
The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver took his positive start into second practice as he went third fastest of the session, behind both Scuderia Ferrari drivers.
With a strong start to the weekend under his belt, Hamilton was eager for his team to continue to chip away at extracting further performance out of the W13 overnight.
“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 spot 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.”
George Russell: “We’re closer on Friday than we’ve been in a while so that’s promising for tomorrow”
After topping the time sheets in first practice, George Russell has stated that the team’s impressive pace shown around Zandvoort could well lead to an equally strong qualifying performance tomorrow.
Mercedes notably struggled with their one-lap pace last time out in Spa-Fracorchamps, before the W13’s race pace was able to deliver a fourth-place finish for Russell.
Second practice saw Russell finish fifth fastest, just over three-tenths of a second behind the fastest time of the session set by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Russell is expecting fellow Mercedes powered team’s, McLaren F1 Team and Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team, to be firmly in the fight for places inside the top ten come tomorrow’s qualifying session.
“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. 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.
The young British driver was also complimentary of the FIA’s decision to trial the activation of the second DRS zone on the banking around turn eighteen.
“The DRS on the banking is pretty cool, it’s incredible how much grip you get with this banking and on turn 3 here, you throw the car in and it just grips – it’s a great feeling.”
