Hamilton hails Schumacher impact on Spanish GP podium

Lewis Hamilton has praised Mick Schumacher's role in Mercedes' double podium finish at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The seven-time F1 World Champion finished runner-up to runaway winner Max Verstappen having started fourth on the grid, whilst teammate George Russell scythed through the field from 12th.

Mercedes introduced a raft of upgrades at the Monaco Grand Prix but were given the first opportunity to truly correlate between data and race track on Friday during practice at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The W14 struggled for pace initially but improved under Hamilton's hands in qualifying, with Team Principal Toto Wolff claiming the Briton should have started on the front row alongside Verstappen's Red Bull.

Hamilton has put the continuous improvement across the weekend down to the work done at the team's Brackley base, singling out Schumacher's contribution in his reserve driver role.

Decent work

"The car felt great," Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365.com, when asked how the upgrades had performed.

"Friday was a real struggle with the balance, it was way out of the window. It was very hard to drive, very unpredictable and then we did some great work overnight.

"We’ve got a great team with Mick back in the simulator on Friday night and he did some great work, which helped us get on the right track on Saturday.

"I think we did pretty decent work in trying to understand the different downforce levels and in the race the car felt great.

"But honestly, I just couldn't match the times that Max was doing. For George to come from 12th to third is just remarkable. So, really awesome result for us as a team."