By Alan Baldwin
SILVERSTONE, England (Reuters) – Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell looked enviously at McLaren’s new-found speed after losing out to their Woking rivals for the second race in a row on Sunday.
McLaren’s Lando Norris lived the dream of being top British driver with second place at his home grand prix ahead of seven times world champion Hamilton in third.
Russell finished fifth behind McLaren’s Australian rookie Oscar Piastri, who lost out to Hamilton due to the unfortunate timing of the safety car.
Norris had qualified on the front row, alongside Red Bull’s eventual winner Max Verstappen, with Piastri third on the grid.
Asked whether Mercedes-powered McLaren were now faster, Hamilton — the winner of a record eight British Grands Prix and appearing on the Silverstone podium for the 14th time in his career — replied: “Yes. 100%. And last week.
“It’s really amazing to see the McLaren back up in competitive form. I think it’s been such a long time,” added the Briton.
“They deserve to have the performance they have so we’ve got to do a better job.”
Hamilton made his debut with McLaren in 2007 and won his first title with them in 2008.
“It’s my family, it’s where I first started, so to see them back up there, looking so strong… I mean that thing was rapid through the high-speed corners,” he said.
“I couldn’t keep up, but we had a good little battle on the restart (after the safety car).”
Russell said the pace of the McLaren had been “super-impressive.
“Our pace was probably better than we expected compared to Red Bull, Aston and Ferrari but McLaren have clearly turned it up in two races now, two racing circuits, they have definitely been a small step ahead of us.
“I could not believe how well they turned the tyres on,” added Russell.
Norris was fourth at Austria’s Red Bull Ring last weekend, with Russell seventh and Hamilton eighth.
“I don’t know how they’ve found this much performance. It’s been quite surprising,” said Russell, who felt McLaren would have been even further ahead had they opted for soft tyres rather than hards in the final stint.
(Additional reporting by Lucy Ha, editing by Christian Radnedge)
