Mercedes “a lot closer than we have been” after upgrades

Lewis Hamilton was encouraged by the performance of Mercedes’ updated car after setting the fourth-quickest time in practice at Imola.

Mercedes brought the second part of the upgrade package they began to introduce at the previous round for this weekend’s race. He said it seems to have made a difference, and thanked his team for their work to bring it forward.

“It’s been a good start to the weekend,” said Hamilton. “We’re a lot closer than we have been, it seems, but we’ll see how tomorrow goes.

“I’m really grateful to everyone back at the factory for pushing so hard to bring these upgrades because we are seeing improvements in the car and our performance on track.”

Mercedes have endured a disappointing start to the season since introducing the W15, which is a significantly different design to the two cars which preceded it.

Hamilton’s team mate George Russell, who joined him in the top five today, said Mercedes are highly motivated to end a win-less run which dates back to his victory in Brazil late in 2022.

“The team have been working so hard to bring these parts sooner than they probably ordinarily would have been coming,” said Russell. “That’s so great to see, the motivation within the team.

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“Everyone’s just pushing forward. Even though we’ve had a tough couple of races, everybody wants to make this better. Everybody wants to improve.

“The car was feeling really good today. We’ll find out tomorrow where we end up in the pecking order. It looks pretty close. It’s obviously a short lap around here, one minute 16, so I’m sure it’s going to be fine margins.”

Russell admitted he was pleased to have the opportunity of three practice sessions this weekend, compared to the previous two sprint events where they had only one hour to focus on their set-up.

“Sometimes in a sport when you have no testing, we’re not allowed to practice, we can’t just take the car and try new things,” he said. “We’re the only sport in the world where you’re only allowed 60 minutes of practice before you do your competition.

“So we feel fortunate this week to have three hours of practice – still not a lot but it’s definitely come at a good time for everyone.”