LEW’S LEFT FEELING BULLISH

LEWIS HAMILTON and George Russell inspired hope that Mercedes may be able to fight Red Bull with a promising start to the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

Hamilton led a Mercedes one-two finish in FP2 yesterday, capping off a problem-free outing for the Silver Arrows.

Few expected the W15 to be challenging at the very front after pre-season testing last week, but the early signs look good.

However, Russell was keen to play down Mercedes’ chances after their on-track running.

“We need to sit down and understand where this increase in performance came from,” he said.

“Is it a one-off? Can we sustain this? What we need to do to fight for a serious position.

“After testing, Max (Verstappen) looked a long way out in front but now that gap has reduced.

“He’s still got a healthy margin to the others rather than just a ridiculous margin. By no means does this mean we’re back or we can fight with them just yet. But, as I said, it’s a really solid day.”

These sentiments were echoed by team-mate Hamilton (inset), who said: “It’s a shock to see us where we are. We will take it, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves.

“We need to keep our heads down, keep working on the set-up and try and extract more.”

The mood in the Red Bull camp was less cheerful after FP2. Reigning champion Verstappen ended the second session of the day down in P6 and spent large portions of FP1 complaining about his car.

The Dutchman struggled with throttle and balance issues but is still expected to pose a serious threat come race day.

Red Bull posted impressive lap times on their long-run simulations, setting up an exciting battle in Bahrain.