Can Mercedes win Sunday's Dutch Grand Prix? 'The car felt alive'

Russell and Hamilton assess their Friday running 

Russell enjoyed getting back in the car after the summer break. It wasn't the smoothest return for the Brit, however. "It was good to get back in the car and into the swing of things with the first day of running here in Zandvoort. It was difficult out there due to the windy conditions. It is perhaps the windiest condition I can remember driving an F1 car in over the past few years." Russell revealed

Russell, who was disqualified after winning the last race in Belgium, sees plenty of potential for Mercedes to take advantage of both McLaren and Max Verstappen. "The car was performing really well. We've got the upgrades on which seem to be working as expected and it looks like quite a close battle with the McLarens and Max [Verstappen], but it could all be different tomorrow." Russell said.

Hamilton: The car 'felt alive' on Friday

Teammate Hamilton is also positive about Friday's running but also refuses to get ahead of himself. "Today wasn't a bad start to the weekend. Everything went well, the car was feeling alive, and we were near the front of the field on the timing screens," the seven-time world champion began. "We understand our car and that is making starting each weekend on the front foot much easier. We can make small tweaks from there, rather than big changes, and that is making it much easier to find performance. That was the case today and sets us up well for the rest of the weekend." Hamilton explained.

So, will Hamilton be battling for the race victory? "There's still more time to find out for sure. I didn't get the most out of my lap on the Soft compound tyre so that's encouraging for qualifying. We will go through the data on the long runs this evening and see if we can make further improvements overnight." The 105-time Grand Prix winner concluded.

This article was written in collaboration with Toby Nixon