Lewis Hamilton: The grip level was pleasantly surprising

Mercedes thinks the start to the weekend in Monaco is going quite positively, and Lewis Hamilton’s second result in practice on Friday confirms this. George Russell had some problems due to steering problems, but overall he was happy with the car’s performance. By the way, it was on his W15 that the new version of the front wing was installed in the first session.

Lewis Hamilton (2nd): “Not a bad day, probably the best of all this season, and the car makes a very good impression. Driving a Formula 1 car on this circuit is a real pleasure, and today I got it.

I was pleasantly surprised by the grip and the way the car responded to my inputs, and it was much more fun to drive than in the previous two years. However, in the second session I didn’t feel as comfortable anymore, so tonight we have a lot to do to improve the car’s behavior on long stretches of laps and to tackle the problem of front tire granulation.

But with a small amount of fuel the driving sensations are quite positive, I don’t want to lose them, but we have to achieve improvements in long series.”

George Russel (10th): “This was one of the best Fridays so far this year, and the impression the car makes is the best of all my performances in Monaco. But during training I suffered from vibrations on the steering wheel – as soon as I pressed the brake pedal, a kind of shaking started in the entire steering system, and to attack on this track you need to have confidence in the car. These problems caused me to deteriorate.

All teams are modernizing their cars at a faster pace and you can see how much better the lap times have become compared to last year.

Lewis’ time shows that our car can set a good pace, but Charles Leclerc is also showing excellent speed and we know that in Monaco everything can change very quickly. I hope we can compete for places in the top five in qualifying tomorrow.”