After a fairly competiti𓃲ve showing in FP1, Mercedes struggled for pace in second practice, with George Russell ending Friday as their fastest driver in eighth place, 0.910s slower than Charles Leclerc’s benchmark. 

Things were even worse for Hamilton as the seven-time world champion finished 11th and two tenths further back from teammate Russell, who was behind both McL♊arens, Alpine’s Fer🉐nando Alonso and the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel.

Speaking after second practice, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shoꦦvlin expౠlained why his team had fallen so far behind in the afternoon. 

“We came in sort of wanting to do some experiments with the ಞcar and I think the ones that we did in FP2 with both [drivers] have taken us backwards,” Shovlin told Sky. 

“The first session we looked a bit stronger, the car was more together. There’s a couple of things that🐠 I’m pretty certain we are going to be undoing overnight, because it didn’t꧟ look great.” 

Shovlin added: “Lewis had picked up a bit of damage during one of his lower fuel runs and that definitely affected his 😼high fuel. 

“But I think some♏ of the set-up changes we made, we’ve gone the wrong way. We’re here to learn and you don’t always get them making the car going quicker, but I think there’s two of those ꦡthat we’ll be going back on overnight.” 

Mercedes are hoping the forecast for a potentially wet qualifying on Saturday proves to be right after a tricky first day of run😼ning in Hungary. 

“In a way that makes it not too bad that we’ve had a difficult FP2, because I think we’ll be facing quite diღfferent conditions in FP3 and quali, and then the race looks like it’ll be a lot cooler than it is today,” said Shovlin. 

“So [it’s] not the end of the world but it would be nice💝 to have a session where you can work with the car a bit, and this wasn’t that. 

“There’s plenty of data for us to go through. I think we know the first things we want to do🐭 and then the🥀 wet’s a different game altogether.” 

Asked whether rain could bring Mercedes back into the game, Shovlin responded: “It’s 🍸guesswork whether you’ll be better or worse. 

“Montreal we were okay🌃 in the wet, Silverstone we were okay. And where we were today, I think we’ll take a 🎃wet session because I think it gives us a bigger potential upside. 

“But we need to get running in FP3 anไd see what we’re dealing with.” 

Mercedes facing ‘tough weekend’ 

Hamilton,🅰 an eight-time Hungarian Grand Prix winner, believes Mercedes are in for a tough weekend at the 𓃲Hungaroring after their difficult start on Friday. 

Following a wide moment at Turn 4 in the cloܫsing stages of FP2, Hamilton repoღrted his car felt “unstable”, while he was also seen locking up on several occasions. 

“The car is a bit of a struggle today, it’s crazy how it swings so much from track to track,” said Hamilton. “B🐟ut just🦄 set-up, just trying to figure out how we can get the car working at the moment. It’s a little bit loose and it’s not doing what we want it to do, so a difficult day.

“Nothing’s changed on the car this week and I’m the same driver this week as I was last week, but it’s just for some reasoꦑn this track it’s not working as well,” he added. “But I think once we got it right the gap is about the same as last week - around a second.”

Ham🐭ilton also revealed t𒅌hat damage to the floor of his W13 disrupted his long runs. 

“I di🧸dn’t get to run at the end because I sustained some damage on my floor so I lost a lot of downforce, and after that it was pretty tricky for th🌟e long run pace,” he explained. 

“So it’s going to be a tough weekend, that’s for sure, but we’ll give it everyth🦋ing and see what we’ve got.”

But tea💖mmate Russell remains optimistic that Mercedes can still salvage a good result from the weekend.

“We were definitely a little bit further away than we would have 🥀expected,” he admitted. 

“There were a couple of issues here and there but I think tomorrow’s going to be a totally new day. And Sunday will also be a different day - so it’s no⭕t lost yet.”