Lewis Hamilton says there is more poteℱntial to 𒅌extract from his Mercedes Formula 1 car as the team continues to work on solving its recent performance issues at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Valt🔥teri Bottas headed teammate๊ Hamilton by just 0.003s in a closely-fought second practice session as Mercedes ended Friday’s running on top.

While recently-crowned five-tim꧙e world champion Hamilton said he could feel a vast improvement in his Mercedes car, he conceded his team still has work to do to fully rectify the problems that led to a sudden performance dip at recent races in Austin and Mexico.

“The car felt bett𝕴er than it did in Mexico, but we are still working our way tဣhrough some issues,” Hamilton said.

“The pace doesn't seem too🌺 bad, so we just have to keep working on it and im𒊎proving it. In FP2, it was quite windy and very gusty through the corners, which meant that the car was actually quite tricky to drive.

“We just need to make sure 🃏that we are quick enough in the dry. It's very close between all of us at the front, but I think there's more♛ potential in our car, so we just need to try and squeeze it out.”

Bottas ended up only sixth in opening practice but recovered strongly in the afternoon 🔯to set the quickest time of the weekend so far in FP2.

“It was a bit🦋 of a mixed day; FP2 was much better than FP1,” Bottas expl♚ained.

“The morning was quite difficult, 🥂it was easy to make mistakes. I had a few lockups and aborted laps, so it was difficult to build a good rhythm.

“But we really improv⛄ed the car for the afternoon and I managed to find a rhythm. T🃏he pace seemed to be good, but it is a short track, so the margins are small.

“There was ౠnot a lot of tyre drop-off today, but we're expecting warmer temperatures, so we ཧwill have to wait and see if that might bring about some issues.

“It is very close between the top three teams, so we can't feel satisfied about our resu𓃲lts today; we know everyone else is going to be working on their performance overnight, so we will have to keep pushing as well.”

Mercedes technical director Jameꦇs Allison added: “We got the short-run pace good, although we think there's more to come tomorrow.

“The long-run pace was there or thereabouts, but I think that we have work to do overnight - as probably do our competitors - to get the car in a place where it is going to be alright forᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ the hotter track that is coming on Sunday.

“So lots and lots of things for us to think about overnight, just one short one-hour session tomorrow to confirm everything and then we're off to find out whether we've made a goꦇod job of it or not.”