“No bouncing,” Relief for Mercedes fans as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell encounter no porpoising issues in Silverstone


“No bouncing,” Relief for Mercedes fans as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell encounter no porpoising issues in Silverstone

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell

Mercedes had been struggling with porpoising and bouncing since the start of the season. With upgrades in Spain, it seemed that the problems were mostly gone, but they returned soon after, and Monaco and Azerbaijan were extremely bumpy for the drivers. Then came the new technical directives regarding the ‘vertical oscillations’.

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While the TD’s rules go into effect from the French Grand Prix, the bouncing did seem to improve in Canada. And in Silverstone, they are fairly minimal. Perhaps this is due to the smooth surface of the track, but it is still good news for Mercedes. What is perhaps even better news is that the next few races until the summer break also feature fairly smooth surfaces in Austria, France, and Hungary.

Another notable part of FP3 was the gap at the top. Max Verstappen was more than 4 tenths clear of his teammate, Sergio Perez. The gap from Sergio Perez to Lewis Hamilton featured fairly equal distances between the drivers, following Hamilton was Carlos Sainz, around 3 tenths behind Charles Leclerc. Sainz struggled with bouncing-related problems yesterday, and the same was true today.

Also Read: “They could well be quick here,” Christian Horner expects to face stiff competition from Mercedes in the upcoming British GP

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A recap of FP3

Full results
The full results of the FP3 session.

The last practice session of the weekend was clean, with no rain. Despite that, track temperatures were 10 degrees lower than they were yesterday, and the sun was out only for a few minutes. Most of the session went under cloudy conditions.

Fairly early on during the session, George Russell reported on the radio that the car was not undergoing any bouncing. This would have bought a smile to the British fans, any Mercedes fans around the world, and on the faces of the team themselves. However, the bouncing was not completely gone.

Towards the end of the practice session, Lewis Hamilton said on the radio: “The rear is bouncing a lot.” It seemed that the Mercedes was not the only car that was bouncing from the rear, as the Ferrari and Haas cars looked to be going through a similar tribulation. While Max Verstappen was well clear on top, it is only a practice session, and the times depend very much on things such as fuel, the program the drivers are running, and the ultimate goals for the session.

The ultimate result was that Max Verstappen was four-tenths clear on the top from teammate Sergio Perez, who was a further 0.037s ahead of Charles Leclerc. George Russell was around 0.088s behind Leclerc, and Hamilton was 0.062s behind Russell. The car certainly looks competitive on the track, and that will be music to the ears of the fans as the teams go into the qualifying session today.

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Also Read: British GP: Max Verstappen leads Red Bull domination in FP3; both Mercedes cars in top 5

Also Read: “It’s bouncing still, quite a bit,” Lewis Hamilton pragmatic despite a positive start to the weekend.