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George Russell is not entirely able to understand why Mercedes was on top at the Friday practice session in Miami. Russell admitted to the media that he wasn't entirely sure how Mercedes was able to hit the ground running on the first day.
“We don’t really understand it to be honest, why we sort of hit the ground running. We always knew ahead of this weekend that the conditions should suit us better, because we’ve been struggling a lot with tire warm-up, even in Bahrain when the track was really rough, but this is the first real hot race of the season, so for sure that’s played a big factor… but it’s only Friday, not getting too carried away.”
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When questioned whether it was, perhaps, the new upgrades that did the trick, George Russell confessed that he wasn't entirely certain if that was the case, as he had yet to look into the numbers after FP1.
“I’m not too sure to be honest because when I got out of FP1, I was straight into the stewards’ office because of the pit lane incident with [Esteban] Ocon and then straight into FP2, I was just working with my engineers to maximise my set-up and leaving it to the boffins to work out if this was the direction to go. But I think it’s definitely been a really productive day for us and probably the most productive Friday we’ve had."
Russell's teammate Lewis Hamilton also does not have an explanation for Mercedes' pace
Lewis Hamilton, just like George Russell, was unsure of why the car was able to perform the way it did on Friday. He confessed that according to him the car felt the same and he didn't feel much of a difference. He admitted that he was still struggling a bit with the car as compared to George Russell during the sessions.
“It feels the similar to me, to be honest. We definitely still have a balance issue. We haven’t cured it. But looking at the times it seems we have improved, so I’m not quite sure where that is. I’m still struggling with car. George looked great out there, but we’re trying different things, so I guess we’ll converge.”
If there is any credibility to the new-found form of Mercedes, then it is surely going to give the team the boost that it needs to compete for the title this season.
