Mercedes admit ‘fuel load’ offers ‘scope’ for rivals to hit back in Bahrain
Mercedes "not getting carried away" despite 1-2 finish in FP2 at F1 Bahrain 💜Grand Prix
Mercedes have conceded that “there is plenty of scope” for rivals to recover against them during Friday qualifying at the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Eyebrows were raised as 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton went fastest in the second p🔯ractice session on Thursday, ahead of teamma🧔te George Russell.
It was an immediate injection of belief and hope for a teꦜam who truly needed it, after two years of underperformance.
But Mercedes admit that their rivals have the ability to change the pecking order in qualifyin𝐆g on Friday.
Trackside Engineeri꧋ng Director Andrew Shovlin reacted to their stunning Thursday performance: "Following the test we were most concerned about our single lap💧 pace.
“We had both drivers in the simulator before returning here. From the running [Thursday], it looks l🐽ike we have improved.
“We're certainly not getting carried away, as there is plenty ﷽of scope within power unit modes and fuel loads for several cars to find a chunk of time before [Friday].
“It's encouraging though tha♕t the picture we had last week seems to have improved.
"The long run data also looks close. Max Verstappen is still comfo🌞rtably out front, as we saw last week, but behind hi🦂m it's going to be a tight battle for the remaining podium spots.
“We know we’ve got plenty to fine tune on the balance. It's still early days with the W15, and we're learning how to get lap-time out 🧔of it with each run, but it's already feeling very different to the last two years that we have been here."
Hamilton said: "It was very windy in FP1, and the track was very different to during theℱ te🗹st.
“We didn’t know exactly 🍃where we♚ would stack up against everyone else, but we had a positive FP2 session.
“The car was feeling good, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We know there is morꦏe to extract, an♚d our long run pace isn’t in the fight with the Red Bulls.
"Overall though, I’m feeling much happier with the car than last ye🅰ar. We’ve made some good improvements and it feels much more like a race car.
“It’s a rea🗹lly good platform for us to build from. We just need to keep our heads down and keep chasing."
Russell added: "We’re not going to ge🃏t car🐈ried away after one day of practice.
“Our qualifying pace did look strong. We made some changes from the test and the impr♕ovement did exceed o🌸ur expectations.
“But ultimately our long run pace is where it counts. Verstappen looked comfortably quickest, and it was very tight with the Ferraris, the McLarens, and the Aston Martins. So we’ve likely got a real 🔥fight on our hands there.”
Red Bull’s Verstappen, who was P6 inไ FP2, reacted: “The practice sessions were not perfect 💝but we weren’t too far off.
“The long runs were quite decent, and I think we can always do🎐 a little be﷽tter on those laps.
“There were a few small balance iss🎶ues that we will work on bu🤪t I am quite happy with everything with the car overall.
“[Thursday] was just aboꦜut trying to find that sweet spot and getting the perfect balance ꦫin the car.
“Perform⛎ing well in qualifying is important, so we will make sure the car is in good shape ahead of tomorrow.
“I’m not too worried about the gap to P1 and we are🥀n’t looking too much at the others and are just focusing on ourselves at the moment.
“It’s going to be very close in qualifying but we will try and work a bit m♛ore and fight for pole [on Friday].”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering e🌞verything from Americanಞ sports, to football, to F1.
