Mercedes experience Friday setback at Spa: 'Rain can help'

Hamilton hopes for rain

The seven-time world champion believes it was a tough afternoon for his team at Spa. "Today wasn't our best day as the car wasn't feeling particularly strong. FP1 wasn't great and we worked on some changes for FP2. That initially improved the balance and it felt good, but once we put the Soft tyre on we struggled more."

The Briton also hopes for rainy conditions on Saturday. "We've got some time to find overnight, and we will be aiming to do so. There could be some wet weather tomorrow so that good change things up. If it does rain, it will likely open things up a little bit and we can hopefully take advantage of that. Let's see what Saturday brings."

George Russell himself also hopes for Mercedes making up time overnight in order to challenge the frontrunners. "The McLarens and the Red Bull of Max Verstappen looked to be a step ahead of us today. We need to dig through the data and put in the work in the simulator. The forecast is also for rain tomorrow so that will add another factor into the mix. We have often had good Fridays and the others have caught up come Saturday, so hopefully it will be us doing that this weekend," the two-time Grand Prix winner explained.

Shovlin confirms Mercedes' struggle

Mercedes' Trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovling was also not shy to list their problems. "We've struggled with the car today so we will be working hard overnight as to how to improve for tomorrow. We are losing time across the full speed range, rather than in specific corners, and the long run isn't where we need it to be either. Both of those are linked by a lack of balance and grip," he explained.

He continued: "We have our team in the simulator back at Brackley already looking at setup options and aiming to make solid progress. There is a good chance we will see some wet running tomorrow. That may make it difficult to evaluate overnight changes, but we will see what we can learn and what Saturday brings."