Mercedes delighted with the Spa floor after impressive opening day at Zandvoort

Having displayed a very impressive performance across the opening practice sessions on Friday, Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have praised their upgraded W15.

Lewis Hamilton ended up third in both practice sessions today. The Briton praised that team for knowing the W15 much better which means that Mercedes can get off a weekend in a much better situation rather than chasing various setup solutions.

“Today wasn’t a bad start to the weekend. Everything went well, the car was feeling alive, and we were near the front of the field on the timing screens. We understand our car and that is making starting each weekend on the front foot much easier.

"We can make small tweaks from there, rather than big changes, and that is making it much easier to find performance. That was the case today and sets us up well for the rest of the weekend.

The seven-time world champion explained that Mercedes will need to study the data gained across the long-run simulations as it was slightly below what McLaren and Red Bull were able to show.

"There’s still more time to find out for sure. I didn’t get the most out of my lap on the soft compound tyre so that’s encouraging for qualifying. We will go through the data on the long runs this evening and see if we can make further improvements overnight.”

His team-mate George Russell topped the second practice session, having been particularly strong through the middle sector of the challenging Zandvoort circuit.

Reflecting on the conditions on Friday, Russell noted: “It was good to get back in the car and into the swing of things with the first day of running here in Zandvoort. It was difficult out there due to the windy conditions. It is perhaps the windiest conditions I can remember driving an F1 car in over the past few years.

The Briton has revealed that the upgraded floor that the team introduced at Spa, but abandoned after Friday, worked as expected.

"Nevertheless, the car was performing really well and the updated floor we brought to Spa seemed to be working effectively. The pack at the front seems to be quite close once again. We expect to be facing another fascinating battle across the rest of the weekend for the podium spots.

"That said, it could all be very different tomorrow as the conditions likely change once again. I’m excited to get back in the car tomorrow and see what we can do.”

Trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovlin has confirmed that the Spa floor worked as expected and the team will continue with the upgraded part in the remainder of the Zandvoort weekend.

“Today was an encouraging start to the weekend. The conditions in FP1 were particularly tricky with very strong winds and heavy rain making it difficult to get a good read on the updated floor we brought to Spa.

"Nevertheless, what we saw looks in line with expectations, so we’ll continue the weekend with that fitted to both cars. Across both FP1 and FP2 the car has been working well. The single lap performance looks solid, although it’s likely to be tight with Verstappen and the McLarens in qualifying as they all looked strong today."

Despite Russell topping the second practice session, Shovlin has revealed that the team was not completely delighted with the race pace of the W15 which they will need to imrpove for Sunday.

"We have a few areas we can improve in that regard but no doubt the others are in a similar position. Our long runs weren’t quite as strong. We can certainly find a bit of pace with tyre management and an improved balance, but Norris looked very good this afternoon and we will need to take a step to get on his pace.

"We’ll work hard overnight to find those gains; we’ve shown in recent races that, if we get the car in the right window, we can be competitive and on the basis of today, it looks like we will should be in the fight near the front tomorrow," concluded Shovlin.