George Russell believes that Ferrari “look very strong” having dominated Friday practice ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, while Mercedes struggled for performance.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton each finished fastest in both of Friday’s one-hour sessions in Budapest, with the tight, twisty confines of the Hungaroring expected to suit the Scuderia’s car this weekend.
Despite leading both the Teams’ and Drivers’ standings, Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli failed to challenge the leading times in either session.
“It was quite a strange day out there I think for everybody,” said Russell, who finished P5 in both sessions.
“It’s an amazing track to drive but they’ve resurfaced half the track, super bumpy.
“Our single lap [pace] didn’t look great, the long run looked more competitive but what we feared with Ferrari seemed to the case. They look very strong.”
Russell admitted that he “trusted in the team that everything has been resolved” after a software issue denied him maximum power at the previous round in Belgium, but that in general “we’ve got work to do as a team, Ferrari are a good step ahead of everyone right now.”
Antonelli, who leads Russell by 50 points and Hamilton by 45, had a delayed start to proceedings on Friday, as his Mercedes was being driven by the team’s Third Driver Fred Vesti in FP1.
Once in the car for FP2, the Italian finished P13 having been unable to complete a Qualifying run, with his first effort halted by a red flag after Franco Colapinto crashed, while he suffered an oversteer moment on his second flying lap.
Despite the setbacks, Mercedes Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord was confident the team would be in the mix come Qualifying tomorrow as they look to continue a 100% pole record in Grands Prix this season.
“We hope we can fight for pole, we’ve been competitive at every type of circuit this year,” he said.
“I know there’s a certain narrative that certain circuits favour us and others will favour them.
“We’ve seen generally other teams swing back and forth a reasonable amount but I think we’ve been pretty consistently fighting up there, at the front and able to compete for pole at every race, so that has to be our target for tomorrow.”
