Lewis Hamilton insists Mercedes “going in the right direction” despite 0.6s McLaren gap

Lewis Hamilton is confident Mercedes are “going in the right direction” despite a six-tenth deficit to McLaren in Friday F1 practice at the British Grand Prix.

Lando Norris dominated the two sessions at Silverstone on Friday as McLaren look to be the team to beat this weekend.

For Mercedes, their FP1 pace was particularly impressive as they opted against running on the softs.

In FP2 though, Hamilton was only sixth-fastest, while teammate George Russell was down in 10th.

More worryingly, the gap to Norris was just over 0.6s.

Reflecting on his Friday at Silverstone, Hamilton was content with the handling of his Mercedes.

“I felt fine,” he said. “Generally felt good. Just not as fast as the guys ahead like the McLarens.”

In terms of Mercedes’ upgrades for this weekend, they’ve introduced a revised front and rear wing, deemed to be “circuit specific”.

Hamilton downplayed their significance, describing them as “small tweaks” but insisted Mercedes are on the right path despite a sizeable gap to McLaren.

“We don’t have upgrades,” he explained. “We have some small tweaks to things but not necessarily upgrades.

“Every time we add something we’re going in the right direction but the others bring upgrades at the same time. I mean we were six and a half tenths off in that one. I don’t know if it’s truly exactly six-tenths. We’ve got some work to do.”

On the other side of the Mercedes garage, Russell feels the team is in a similar position to recent rounds.

“This morning was really good to be honest,” he added. “The car was feeling great. We struggled a bit more this afternoon, need to understand why. Got a little bit windier. We didn’t quite nail the tyres. Pretty similar competitiveness as we’ve seen in the last few races.

“FP1 was really strong. We need to understand why we lost a little bit of pace in FP2. I am sure it’s all going to change tomorrow with the conditions, it’s raining now. Just happy to be here and excited to go racing.”