Russell warns against reading into Mercedes testing flourish

George Russell has warned against reading into Mercedes' one-two finish in testing despite ominous form on the final day of the first pre-season outing.

Lewis Hamilton was just under a tenth faster than new team-mate Russell at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as F1 hit the track with its new generation of car last week.

Whilst performance is generally unrepresentative during testing, the form displayed by the Silver Arrows in a final day flourish has raised questions as to whether the pack really will be on a more level playing field this year.

Summing up his first week on track in Mercedes colours, Russell said: "I think it has been incredibly intriguing for all of us.

"There have been a lot of unexpected issues that have been quite visible. Some teams have it quite well under control and some clearly do not.

"Lap time-wise, I don't think it is representative at all, we were on the softest compound of tyres and the C5 tyre is a very strong tyre around this track so even though we were on the top of the timesheet, I wouldn't read too much into it.

"I think the Ferrari and the Mclaren were looking incredibly strong and we have got some improvements to be made as we are not fully happy with the balance of the car and the limitations we have currently.

"But at the end of the day, it is only testing, I think we have made some good experiments and have a good indication of the developments we need."

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