Russell eager to prove upgraded Mercedes’ pace is real

George Russell says he can’t wait for qualifying as Mercedes looks in the mix with McLaren and Red Bull at the Dutch Grand Prix, while opening practice pacesetters Lando Norris and Max Verstappen both were left looking to find more performance after FP2.

Mercedes topped the second practice session at Zandvoort with Russell first and teammate Lewis Hamilton third, separated by McLaren's Oscar Piastri. With the top five -- also including Norris and Verstappen -- covered by under 0.3s, Russell says the Mercedes is handling well and he is excited by the prospect of fighting for pole position in qualifying.

“Getting back into the swing of things,” Russell said. “Really difficult out there because it was so, so windy, probably the windiest I’ve remembered in the last couple of years. The car was performing really well -- got the upgrades on which seem to be working as expected. It looks like quite a close battle with the McLarens, with Max, but it could all be different again tomorrow.

“The first six races, the car was off the pace but the weather was consistent and they were pretty straightforward race weekends for everyone. Suddenly as soon as the car’s been quick in Canada, Silverstone, all sorts [of weather] have been thrown at us, but it’s the same for everyone.

“I’m just really excited to be back and can’t wait to go out in qualifying and feel that battle and excitement that qualifying always offers. I’ve missed it.”

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While Piastri was 0.061s off Russell, Norris was over 0.2s adrift and believes it will be close with Mercedes as McLaren looks to fine-tune an upgraded car at Zandvoort.

“Mercedes are quite quick -- it’s close,” Norris said. “I don’t think there is a quickest; it just depends on different factors. We’ve been in good form since Miami, but we’ve not really brought any updates since Miami, this weekend’s our first time trying to make a bit more progress with the car.

“So, optimistic but I have no idea if it’s working or not or how it’s performing at the minute, but today was a reasonable day and we’re there or thereabouts. A little bit more to find overnight hopefully and we can challenge the Mercedes.”

Norris and McLaren led the way in opening practice but feels he still has “a little more to find” for qualifying. Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images

Home favorite Verstappen had a spin in the wet first session before ending up sixth in FP2, and he says Red Bull appears to be lacking performance compared to the top two teams.

“Of course FP1 we didn’t really get a lot of running in but I guess in FP2 you could see a little bit more where you are,” Verstappen said. “A bit too slow on the short run, a bit too slow on the long run! So a bit of work to do. At the moment, no clear answer of how to improve that specifically but we’ll look into things. Just a bit too slow, as simple as that.

“It’s where we have been the last few races, you know? So it’s not really a surprise. We’ll try to just find a little bit more performance for Sunday.”