Mercedes “scratching their heads” after “incredible day"

George Russell says Mercedes are left “scratching their heads” after making an unexpectedly strong start at the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton topped both practice sessions on the first day of running in Sin City and headed a Mercedes 1-2 in FP1, with Russell third-quickest behind McLaren’s Lando Norris in FP2.

Russell admitted that no one knows what was behind Mercedes’ impressive performance.

“Yeah, incredible day. I'd love to tell you why, to be honest, we are scratching our heads a little bit, why it was so, so positive,” Russell said.

“Obviously, it was only practice. Lewis did a really great job out there as well. He's been really on it since lap one, but the car has just been working. But you know, we're on a street track. It's really dirty.

“It's getting faster and faster every lap. Because we were fast today, it doesn't necessarily mean we're going to replicate it tomorrow, when the track will be probably three seconds faster. So, pleasantly surprising.”

Asked if he fears Mercedes could lose performance as the weekend unfolds, Russell replied: “It's definitely not a fear. I think the perception of us losing performance is maybe not quite fair.

“I think it's more of a function that our competitors don't use their high power. They might be running a bit more fuel than us on a Friday, so they're kind of historically, they've been sandbagging a little bit more, and when they take it off they go into their normal position.

“There's a possibility that will happen again tomorrow, but the gap we showed this morning and this evening has been pretty substantial.

“But I'm sure the other rivals are going to work hard overnight and close that gap, but I just hope we can continue the form.”

Speaking between the practice sessions, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff joked: “I think we are dirty track champions.

“FP1 is always great and then the moment the grip kicks in, we've seen that the performances deteriorate. Having said that, I think the gap was pretty big.

“It's the biggest that we've seen so far in FP1, so we've got to spray some dust for all the sessions tomorrow, in qualifying or something.

“But I don't believe this kind of advantage to the other teams is going to last. I would very much hope that we're not falling behind like we did in the past on some of the tracks, but remain competitive, fight in the front.”