Russell not alarmed by Mercedes' lack of pace in Spain

George Russell says Mercedes are not "Friday specialists" as he played down their apparent lack of Formula 1 pace at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The British driver ended the two sessions in 10th and eighth, respectively as Lewis Hamilton could only manage 12th and 11th.

Hamilton even called into question their chances of making it through to Q3 given the lack of single-lap performance in the upgraded W14.

However, Russell is not concerned by the lowly positions on the time-sheets heading into Saturday and Qualifying.

Russell not concerned

"First, it was fun to drive around the new version of the Barcelona circuit, I think [the final corner] has gone from probably one of the worst corners in Formula 1 to probably one of the best corners," he told media including RacingNews365.

"So that's really enjoyable, it's only Friday and I think we learned a huge amount, so we'll dig into the data tonight.

"We know that we're not Friday specialists, and we often take a bit of a step forward on Saturday and Sunday.

"That is the right way round for it to be, but you know, we are where we are.

"A lot of people are bringing updates to the car, we weren't suddenly expecting to set the world on fire.

"We just need to learn what we can from the information we've got and try and move forward tomorrow."

Hamilton added that the "long run pace didn't look terrible" and that the car "felt like the car" as the team tried to understand the tyres and the degradation.