Hamilton: We’re not ‘miles off’ Red Bull and Ferrari

Ending Friday at Silverstone in P2, Lewis Hamilton feels the upgraded Mercedes W13 is not far off the leading pace of Ferrari and Red Bull.

FP1 did not feature a great deal of meaningful running thanks to heavy showers impacting parts of the track, so with several teams, including Mercedes, bringing upgrades to the British Grand Prix, it meant that FP2 was action-packed in a bid to make up for lost time.

And Hamilton would give Mercedes great reason for optimism, recording the second-fastest time, only 0.163s slower than Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who set the pace.

So, comparing the Silverstone track surface to the one in Barcelona, where Mercedes delivered their strongest showing of the season, Hamilton has confidence that his team are in a good place against Red Bull and Ferrari.

Asked by Sky Sports F1 if he could feel the upgrades working, in particular relating to the ride of the W13, Hamilton replied: “The upgrades wasn’t anything to do with ride, it’s just literally downforce.

“And it’s difficult to feel it because we have two massively different tracks, we are coming from a low wing, low speed circuit to all medium and high speed circuits, so didn’t get to feel the car like this last week [in Canada], but it’s much smoother this track which is much better, bit more like Barcelona in that sense.

Torquing Point: Home drivers looking forward to the weekend

Torquing Point: Mercedes looking to build on Canada form

Torquing Point: Upgrades coming for multiple teams

Torquing Point: British GP preview

Haas fell apart after qualifying in Canada

Mercedes need to find a solution for their porpoising

“But this is the best track there is. It is still hair raising and just epic to drive and we are still fighting the car a little