George Russell hopes the Spanish Grand Prix was a “sign of things to come” for Mercedes after an impressive double podium.
While Max Verstappen headed off into the distance, the Brackley-based outfit enjoyed their best race of the season, emerging as comfortably the second-fastest team in Barcelona.
Russell used a combination of excellent tyre management, strategy and pace to overtake multiple cars en route to his first podium of the year in third.
“A little bit surprised for sure,” he said post-race. “Kudos to the team for giving me a really great car today.
“That was a fun race for us starting from P12, coming all the way to P3. A sign of things to come hopefully for us and the team.”
The performance was definitely a strong indication that Mercedes’ recent upgrade, moving away from its ‘zeropod’ concept, has put the team back on the right track
“Yeah it definitely feels better,” Russell said of the W14, “when you’re just putting in those lap times and you’re comparing with the guys around you, with the Astons and the Ferraris and we were just quicker and quicker and quicker.
“So we know we brought some more downforce to the car, we know things were in a better window, so really pleased to be on the podium.”
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Teammate Lewis Hamilton had a slightly easier route to the podium, overhauling Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari after also running long on his first stint.
And the seven-time world champion praised his team after securing his second P2 finish of the season.
“What a result for our team,” he said. “We definitely didn’t expect to have the result we had today, so I just really wanna take my hat off to my team.
“A big big thank you to everyone back at the factory for continuing to push and bringing us a bit closer to the [Red] Bulls.
“They’re still a bit ahead, but we’ll keep chasing them down. But this is an amazing result, George did a great job today as well.”
As Hamilton alluded to, the gap to Verstappen remains huge as the Dutchman claimed victory by 24 seconds on Sunday.
But the Briton is hopeful that Mercedes can catch up.
“I think they’re a bit too quick at the moment,” he said of Red Bull.
“But we’re working at it. So, just one step at a time and if we can get close by the end of the year, that’ll be awesome. But if not, next year.”