Mercedes struggled through the early part of the season when their newly designed F1 car suffered from porpoising. As a result, the Silver Arrows were left stranded behind the frontrunners, Red Bull and Ferrari, as they failed to compete for the race win. However, Mercedes have made headway over the course of the season\’s first half. They finally have some positive results going their way. The German outfit secured their second consecutive double podium as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished P2 and P3 for the second time in two racing weekends.
Mercedes surprised everyone as George Russell secured the pole on Saturday by being the quickest car across Hungaroring. Meanwhile, Hamilton had to settle with a P7. An issue with his DRS during the final moments of Q3 cost him an opportunity for a front-row start. However, the two Brits showed some fierce pace to beat finish ahead of both Ferraris, who has been really fast this season.
The Scuderia was quicker during the first half when Leclerc took on the lead from Russell. However, a switch on the hard tyres proved to be quite bad for the Monegasque. He finished P6 despite being on softs during the final stint. Meanwhile, his teammate could not do better than P4, finishing seven seconds behind Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver recently revealed that it felt great to see his team starting to make progress after the year they have had.
Getting second place in France was huge for Mercedes. Not just that, a second double podium was quite fantastic for the team in terms of points. Lewis stated that finishing ahead of the two superior-paced Ferraris was huge for the team. Starting at P7 and finishing in second place was also a good recovery for the Briton. Hamilton concluded, \”I think given the troubles we had through the weekend, that shows we\’ve got really great pace.\”
Andrew Shovlin Reckons Mercedes Have More To Come
Mercedes\’ technical engineering director Andrew Shovlin recently suggested that his team is hoping to get more close to the frontrunners during the next race in Spa after the summer break. Mercedes recently released the Hungarian GP post-debrief video. In that, Shovlin stated Mercedes are trying to bring some performance to Spa to close the gap hopefully. The British engineer believes Mercedes did not have far to go. He told that the team would keep developing the car.
Mercedes is quite excited as the last few races have been the most fun after struggling the whole year. The Brackley-based outfit hopes to take the extra step in an attempt to win races soon. They are working hard to achieve it. Shovlin added, \”The last one was particularly satisfying because we weren\’t relying on the misfortune of anyone dropping out with a reliability problem.\”