After a challenging start to the campaign where Mercedes has struggled with its W15, duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton ended up fourth and fifth quickest respectively in Suzuka’s morning free practice session, which offered the only representative running with FP2 taking place in damp conditions.
Off the back of a host of experiments that the team was running as part of its bid to get to the bottom of its car’s high-speed weakness and tyre temperature management, Hamilton said the early evidence pointed to good progress having been made.
