Lewis Hamilton opens up on George Russell ‘experiment’ that worked against him in Spain

F1 preview: A lap of the Monaco Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton has revealed that Mercedes trialled an ‘experiment’ on George Russell’s car that gave the 24-year-old a noticeable performance advantage in qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix. The Silver Arrows managed to find some much-needed pace over the course of the weekend in Barcelona and will be hoping to maintain their newly-found momentum on the streets of Monaco at the next time of asking.

Russell managed to qualify ahead of Hamilton yet again at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya before securing a podium finish in Sunday’s race to continue his stunning start to the campaign in his first year as a Mercedes driver. Hamilton has since revealed that his new team-mate reaped the rewards of a slightly different package in Saturday’s qualifying session that could well be introduced to both cars at this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.

“We have made a lot of improvements with the car, the race pace is much, much better and the car is much nicer in the race,” said Hamilton after mounting an impressive comeback to clinch a fifth-placed finish in Spain after tangling with Kevin Magnussen on the opening lap.

“We just have some improvements to make for it in qualifying. Our cars were a little bit different, we experimented something on George’s car which ultimately [ended up] being the better way to go in qualifying so maybe the next race I can take that on.

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“This is a great sign we are going in the right direction and I have no doubt that at some stage [I will improve] because if I hadn’t had that [incident with Magnussen] I would have been fighting with the Red Bulls. That gives me great hope that at some stage we will be fighting.”

Hamilton has been outperformed by Russell at every Grand Prix this season with the exception of Bahrain and currently finds himself occupying sixth place in the Drivers’ Championship standings after a muted start to the new campaign. The 37-year-old was beaten by his team-mate once again in Barcelona but rolled back the years to produce a hugely determined effort after his first-lap setback to claim his third top-five finish since the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether Mercedes will be able to challenge at the right end of the grid once again in Monaco over the course of this weekend, with the German outfit’s impressive performance through slow-speed corners helping them to make the most of their limited pace in Australia and Spain. Hamilton believes that Mercedes are likely to remain slightly adrift of the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari, though, when the on-track action gets back underway at F1’s most prestigious event.

“I don’t know if we will be quick enough for that,” added the seven-time world champion when quizzed on his hopes of securing his first pole position of the season in Monaco. “I don’t think we are quick enough to qualify first just yet.”

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