Lewis Hamilton suffers as he makes a large spin in P3.

There were mixed messages coming from the Mercedes drivers on Friday night at the conclusion of the opening two practice sessions in Budapest – an upbeat George Russell sounding confident of his chances heading into qualifying, while the same couldn’t be said for his team mate Lewis Hamilton… Hamilton came into this weekend brimming with confidence after his victory last time out at Silverstone, and while he cut a relaxed figure out of the car, his joking demeanour belied some frustration at the balance of his W15 in the searing heat – with an air temperature of 32 Degrees Celsius and the track temperature hitting 60 Degrees at one point.

FP2: Norris sets the pace while Leclerc brings out red flags during second practice in Hungary “[The car] felt just as bad as it does normally when it’s hot,” said Hamilton, who came home seventh in FP1 and P10 in FP2. “Today’s not been a good day really, apart from the weather’s been good and it’s been nice to be here but we’ve not really been on form today so the car hasn’t felt good set-up wise. But I think we have an idea why and we’ll just work overnight – but not the best prep so far.”

The seven-time world champion said the long run pace felt “quite great,” which bodes well for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Russell finished fourth and fifth in the two sessions, but the atmosphere on the opposite side of the garage was much more positive. Like his teammate, he admitted that Mercedes has work to do overnight, citing Lando Norris and Max Verstappen as the biggest dangers at this circuit.

“We definitely got more laps in than others in the extended run between FP1 and FP2,” Russell explained. “McLaren are looking really quick, Lando [Norris] is flying at the moment, and I don’t believe Max [Verstappen] is too far behind

“Then race runs, Lando and Max look a little bit out in front, so we need to understand, because in the hot conditions of Austria and Barcelona, we were off the pace versus those two drivers, and in the cooler conditions of Silverstone and Montreal, we were ahead of those two, so something we need to work on.

“[Tomorrow], I believe everything is possible; I’m thrilled to see what we can accomplish. I believe we will be in contention for the top four slots again. Checo [Perez] appears to be fairly swift today, so having a fight there may come as a surprise, so let’s wait and see.