Mercedes drivers believe gap to competition has narrowed

At the heart of a 2020 season outrageously dominated by Mercedes, it's almost a small event. Not a revolution naturally but we have not yet seen this year such a tight Friday hierarchy at the top of the timesheet. 

Si Valtteri Bottas signed the best mark in Free Practice 1, the Finn was only ahead of the Red Bull de Max Verstappen in 3rd position by 81 thousandths, his teammate Lewis Hamilton intercalating at 0''069. Sergio Pérez and his Racing Point are in 4th place, only 0”136 behind the leading Black Arrow.  

In the afternoon, the best classified W11, that of Hamilton, only appeared in 3rd place, 96 thousandths behind the reference time established by Verstappen, and behind the Renault de Daniel Ricciardo. Bottas was even more discreet, relegated to 6th place, more than 4 tenths behind. 

« The first session was satisfactory, the second more complicated but nothing to worry about and I didn't manage to complete a clean lap in the afternoon anyway, commented the Finn who celebrates his 31st birthday this Friday. Maybe we should go back to the settings used in FP1.

I suffered from understeer all day. I couldn't lean on the front end as much as I would have liked in FP2. If the front axle becomes more responsive, we should be able to improve our times. 

The field looks particularly dense, the gaps have never been so close this season ». 

Hamilton also noted this group shot at the top and the variety of forces present, but he did not seem to be overly concerned about it.

« It was very tight on the track, declared the six-time world champion. The Red Bull looks just a bit faster than us at the moment. The Racing Points are at our level. Daniel Ricciardo and his Renault were also in the mix. This keeps things interesting and we have our work cut out for us to try to improve the car. But the sensations are good. 

The feeling is different from one circuit to another. We are in the 7th race and the gaps will continue to narrow as the teams develop their cars. We can see it this weekend. We must understand whether it is our rivals who have progressed or us who have regressed. Maybe it comes from the track characteristics with different levels of downforce. The race promises to be interesting in any case ». 

That's all we can hope for.