After their miserable 2022, and lacklustre displays at the opening two rounds in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Mercedes had their strongest qualifying of the season in Melbourne, with168澳洲5最新开奖结果: George Russell and168澳洲5最新开奖结果: Lewis Hamilton taking second and third respectively. 

Their encouraging pace translated into Sunday’s race with Russell and Hamilton both making strong starts to pounce on 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen and move into an early 1-2 on a th⛦rilling opening lap. 

Russell’s race was eventually curtailed by an engine failure that will give Mercedes some cause for concern. But Hamilton was able to cover off 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Fernando Alonso prior to the wild finish and claim second place on merit in a much-needed 🅘boost for the Brackley squad. 

What was behind Mercedes’ improvement? 

Mercedes’ sudden improvement took everyone by surprise, inꩵcluding themselve🌊s, considering they had not brought any performance upgrades to Melbourne. 

Team boss Toto Wolff admiꦍtted after qualifying that Mercedes’ much-improved competitiveness was unexpected, and suggested it was likely the result of a combination of factors coming together. 

Qualifying took place in cool𓄧er temperatures and while some teams were having trouble with tyre warm-up, Mercedes aced their tyre preparation. 

"The tyres play a b꧋ig factor," Russell noted. "When you get them in the sweet spot, you make a big jump. I i♏mproved 0.4secs in my last run and unfortunately it is always tyres, tyres, tyres.”

Red Bull were among those struggling, which may partly explain how Mercedes were suddenly able to slash their previous one-second def🐓icit down to a couple of tenths. 

Verstappen’s teammate, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Sergio Perez, was out of the picture having suff𝐆ered a disas❀trous Q1 elimination, further boosting the final positioning of the two Mercedes. 

In Sunday’s race, which took pl🎀ace in hotter conditions, Mercedes maintained their strong pace on their way to sealing their best result of the season so far.

Can Mercedes really catch Red Bull? 

Russell boldly claimed he saw 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:“no reason” why Mercedes couldn’t have beaten Verstappeꦦn to the win in Melbourne, but in reality, Red Bull’s RB19 looked to be on another planet༒. 

While Mercedes’ performance against Red Bull appeared much better - with Hamilton able to keep within 10 seconds of Vers🍌tappen throughout - Red Bull’s true advantage was ultimately skewed by the multiple Safety Car and red flag interruptions. 

Despite mixing it up with Verstappen early in the race, Hamilton was powerless to prevent the Dutchman breezing past with his168澳洲5最新开奖结果: “insane” straiꦐghtline speed and “crazy downforc🅺e”. 

It was here that Verstappen revealed the ominous pace of his Red Bull by turning a 0.5-second deficit to Hamilton into a 2-second advantag🃏e by the following lap.

Verstappen’s apparent pace-management in Melbourne led Russell to claim that Red Bull are 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:deliberatel๊y hiding their true potential to avoid intervention from the FIA to peg back t🤪heirꦰ advantage.

Nevertheless, Hamilton still believes Mer⛦c🐼edes can reduce the gap to Red Bull over the course of the season. 

“I still feel uncomfortable in the car. I still don’t feel connected to it,” said Hamilton, who revealed ahead of the weekend he is strugglin💧g with the further-forward cockpit of the W14. 

"I'm driving as best Iཧ can with that disconnect 💙and I'm working as hard as I can to try and create that connection. But I think it's a long project.

♕“But still, considering we've been down on performance, we're clearly down on straight [line] pace compared to the Red Bulls, for us to be up here fighting with Aston [Martin, third in Melbourne] is just amazing at this point in ౠthe season,” he said. 

"We just have to keep on fighting. A big, big thank you to all the people back at the facto🦄ry. Let's keep pushing.

"We can close that gap. It's going to be to🔯ugh but not impossible."

But Mercedes will not be get𒁏ting carried🙈 away with their much-improved showing in Australia, according to Wolff. 

"We will have to think about why we were so fast here," he said. ▨"We must not delude ourselves, but we will definitely m꧒aintain our development direction and take one step at a time forward."