Russell sees challenge for Mercedes: 'We need to understand why'

The Briton has generally outperformed his teammate this season but failed to beat the seven-time world champion in Britain on Friday. In fact, Russell had to settle for eighth place, leaving him far behind Carlos Sainz who won the practice session.

However, Russell was able to see through the result in Mercedes' press release afterwards. According to the Brit, Mercedes has clearly improved but still has a big step to make over one lap. The driver thus seems to fear a disappointing qualifying session.

"Some positive signs there but definitely room to improve," Russell began. "We need to understand why our race pace is so much stronger than our single lap pace, the McLaren is very strong on a single lap but we just can't get the tyres working over a single lap. Over the course of a race, we're in a pretty good window but it's always a balance."

Hamilton complains about porpoising

Hamilton may have secured second place, but afterwards, Mercedes could count on some criticism. The driver was of the opinion that the bouncing has still not been resolved, which means there is plenty of work for his team to do to provide solutions.