Russell: We don’t get too excited.

After the first training sessions on the Bahrain circuit, the Mercedes drivers picked up the top two lines of the protocol, although they mainly kept a low profile during the tests last week. Commenting on Thursday’s results, George Russell said the team does not yet fully understand how they were able to show such a fast pace.

George Russell (2nd): “We don’t give in to unnecessary enthusiasm, although the car is really capable of good pace in qualifying mode. At the same time, we still have to understand why, but after the tests we made some changes to the settings and the effect of these exceeded our expectations.

But we have to admit that Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing are still in the lead in the long series of laps. The results are very close, the drivers of Aston Martin, Ferrari and McLaren have lost quite a bit to us, so it will be a hot battle.

We are happy with the results of the day, the car left a good impression, but we should not attach much importance to the lap results for the time being. During practice we made a small miscalculation in choosing the settings, and the bottom of the car scraped heavily on the surface of the track – I don’t know if the sparks flying from under my W15 were noticeable from the outside.

The driving sensations were somehow wrong, already in the first corner I locked the wheels and in the eleventh the car lost its stability on the uneven roads. When we looked at the telemetry we realized what the problem was and adjusted the settings a bit so that by the next race everything was back to normal.

But again, we are still studying the characteristics of the car – not only Lewis and I are doing this, but also Mercedes engineers and mechanics. Now we will all analyze together what today’s improvements are related to and try to maintain this level. In Saturday’s race we want to fight for high positions.”

Lewis Hamilton (1st): “During the first practice there was a strong wind and the condition of the track was very different than during the tests. We don’t yet know exactly what positions we will take compared to our opponents, but the second session went well. The car made a good impression, but you shouldn’t get ahead of yourself. We know we can improve even more, despite the fact that the pace of the long series of laps does not give us the hope that we can compete with Red Bull.

However, I am much more satisfied with the car than I was a year ago. We have been able to make noticeable progress, and thanks to the W15 we can claim better results. A good foundation has been laid, which now needs to be further developed. You just have to be persistent and keep attacking.”

Andreas Shovlin, Chief Race Engineer: “After testing, our main concern was one lap speed, so both drivers did some simulator work before returning to Bahrain. And judging by today’s results, we have been able to make improvements.

Of course, we are not relaxing, because today different teams used different modes of operation of the power plant and the cars had different amounts of fuel in the tanks, but tomorrow we will try to improve significantly. However, we have managed to make improvements compared to last week, which is encouraging.”