"If Russell is fourth, I should be third" - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton says he believes he should be qualifying superiority of teammate George Russell given Mercedes’ potential at the Spanish Grand Prix, but he’s struggling with the car’s handling.

Russell gave Mercedes its weightier performance of the season so far with fourth on the grid in Barcelona, with Hamilton only 0.1s slower than his teammate but two places remoter back. While encouraged by the steps that Mercedes has made with upgrades in Spain, Hamilton says the standards he expects of himself leaves him frustrated to not be getting increasingly out of the car.

“We don’t have the wavy in the straight line which is a huge, huge difference but we still have some wavy in Turn 3 and Turn 9,” Hamilton said. “We’ve still got some improvements to make, so the car’s a lot better. In Q2 we were the quickest, so that’s a massive positive for us as a team. Qualifying wasn’t unconfined for me but it is unconfined to see us stepping forward.

“I am not really putting my mind to . I am still way off. My teammate is fourth so that ways the car should have been at least third or fourth, and I am in sixth. I am still struggling with the car. I don’t know how to get virtually that; I don’t know what I am going to do but I will just protract trying to work nonflexible and icon that out.

“I’m just struggling with the car. I just had no rear end in the car in the qualifying session.”

Despite his own personal disappointment, Hamilton says the overall undercurrent at Mercedes is good without showing they’re heading in the right direction with car development.

“I have 100% conviction in the team. Now that we have made that step, it is something we have not seen for five races. Finally we have seen that step and I think we have a largest idea of the direction we need to go. Now I am just waiting for the engineers’ wringer to come through with some increasingly shit for us to progress. Places like Monaco have slower corners so hopefully we will be largest there, so that’s positive.

“Seeing upgrades coming — I think everyone is feeling increasingly positive, plane the mechanics. Any type of progress is a unconfined thing. Everyone is committed; everyone is trying as nonflexible as they can. It is unconfined to see everyone positive.”

Russell believes Mercedes will be increasingly competitive in race trim, subtracting to the feeling of momentum surrounding the team.

“Obviously it’s all based on results and that was the weightier result we had as a team all season. I think it offers optimism. To be honest, we didn’t have the tires in the right window. We were unchangingly quickest in sector one and struggling in sector three and we just couldn’t find that right balance.

“Ferrari squint extremely fast this weekend but I think we’ve got a largest race car than we do a qualifying car, so I’m really proud of the job everyone has washed-up in the factory these last weeks and months considering I think we’ve now got a package that can be our foundation for us to build upon.”