Hamilton weighs in on potential for a battle-of-six this weekend after strong pace on Friday

The 2022 season has seen two teams and four drivers outperforming the rest of the field on race day, but this weekend could see Mercedes enter the front of the field once more.

The Brackley-based team has encountered numerous issues so far this season but Lewis Hamilton has said he can see the Mercedes car is improving “bit by bit.”

The seven-time world champion said the W13 is not out of the woods just yet and that despite the improvement in pace, he is “still struggling.”

Speaking after his first taste of the Miami circuit – outside of simulation runs – Hamilton told Sky Sports: “It feels similar to me.

“We seem to be quicker here, and later on they were explaining to us that we definitely have improved in some way – and I’m not exactly sure why that is.

“We still have the bouncing, so we haven’t cured it, but bit by bit we’re improving the car.

“There are definitely positive elements to take from today.

“I’m still struggling with the car – George looked great out there – but we’re trying a lot of different things. We’ll converge and hopefully improve.”

Meanwhile, George Russell was flying on Friday and managed to post the fastest time during FP2. The British driver was delighted with the performance of his car but said he doesn’t know where that pace has come from.

“I don’t really understand it to be honest, why we’ve hit the ground running,” he told reporters.

“We always knew coming into the weekend that the conditions should suit us better, because we’ve been struggling with tyre warm-up. For sure that’s played a big factor, but the car’s working well.

“It’s only Friday, we’re not getting too carried away.”

FP2 results