Damon Hill casts doubt over Mercedes’ Imola pace: “I have seen this before”

1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill has questioned Mercedes’ impressive pace during the first two practice sessions for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell ran towards the top of the timesheets in both sessions at Imola.

In the more representative second session, Hamilton and Russell were fourth and fifth, around 0.4s off Charles Leclerc’s top time.

Mercedes have introduced a significant upgrade for this weekend as they look to turnaround their miserable start to the campaign.

Mercedes are without a podium finish in the opening six races - the last time this has happened was in 2011.

However, Hill is unconvinced by their level of performance on Friday.

“I am still going to be the voice of doom,” Hill said. “It is Friday and I have seen this before.

“Happy on a Friday then, all of a sudden on a Saturday, Max and Red Bull drop a load of fuel out of the car and turn the engine a bit. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

Mercedes currently sit a distant fourth in the F1 constructors’ championship, 60 points behind customer team McLaren.

Former W Series driver Naomi Schiff thinks Mercedes’ form in practice was a welcome boost given that there has been “really low energy” inside the team amid their poor results.

“It was nice to hear them say positive things because it has been really low energy from the team for a while,” she added.

“It’s nice to see that whatever they brought this weekend, it’s working for them. Hopefully they have something that is competitive.

“Today they were four tenths off the pace. That’s still not right there. But they are within a fighting chance.

“We still have FP3 and qualifying then, apparently, different conditions on Sunday.”