Lewis Hamilton sounding upbeat as Mercedes impress in Spanish Grand Prix practice

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has sounded about as positive as he has all season after reflecting on a strong Friday practice showing at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The W13 has been a real difficult challenge for Hamilton and team-mate George Russell to get on top of, with them arguably suffering from porpoising more than any other team so far this season.

Indeed, that has hampered car set-up and that has, in turn, taken away lap-time from the car – with the team genuinely believing that it has potential if they could just unlock the problems with the porpoising.

Perhaps, then, we’re seeing signs this weekend that that unlocking process has begun with a host of new upgrades introduced to the car and strong performance from both Russell and Hamilton in FP2, with them finishing behind only Charles Leclerc on the timesheet.

Of course, they won’t be counting their chickens in the Mercedes garage any time soon, especially after a similar showing on Friday in Miami was followed by just a 5th and 6th in the Grand Prix but, clearly, Hamilton feels they’re heading in the right direction.

“It was positive, I am super happy with the progress so a big, big thank you to everyone back at the factory for not giving up and continuing to push,” Lewis said on Friday evening.

“We are not the quickest yet but we are on our way.

“That is the first time we have driven down the straight without bouncing.

“We still have some bouncing but it is way better so we are starting to eek in a bit of the potential in the car.

“It is still tough out there with the car but it is much nicer than it has been before.

“I am really grateful for those upgrades and now we just need to fine-tune them.

“We need to get into the data overnight and I think we can get it