Lewis Hamilton vowed to "keep chasing Red Bull down" as Mercedes' season shifted up a gear at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Silver Arrows finally abandoned their 'zeropod' aerodynamic concept in Monaco and brought further updates with them to Barcelona this weekend. And it paid off as they were comfortably the second quickest team on track – behind the still-rampaging Red Bulls.
Max Verstappen started on pole and sped off into the distance. Sergio Perez started 11th and made up several places to fourth, but could not reel in the two Mercedes drivers who showed great race pace and low tyre degradation to secure a welcome double podium.
Hamilton admitted the result caught him a little by surprise, but pointed to it as evidence that the performance gap to the championship leaders is closing. "What a result for our team, we definitely didn't expect to have the result we have today, so I just really want to take my hat off to my team," he said.
"A big, big thank you to everyone back at the factory for continuing to push and bringing us a little bit closer to the Bulls. They're still a bit ahead, but we will keep chasing them down, but this is an amazing result. George did a great job today as well."
Team-mate George Russell echoed that shock and expressed his hope that the gap will continue to close. The younger Brit said: "I'm a little bit surprised, for sure.
"Kudos to the team for giving me a really great car today. A strong race for us as well from P12 coming all the way to P3. A sign of things to come hopefully for us as a team."
Speaking about the car specifically, he added: "It definitely feels better. You're just putting in those lap times and you compare them with the guys around you – with the Astons and the Ferraris – and we were just quicker and quicker and quicker. We know we've brought some more downforce to the car, we know things were in a better window. So really pleased with having a podium."
Meanwhile, Hamilton vowed his team will do everything it can to prove F1 fans with a title race in 2024. He said: "Just one step at a time. If we could get close by the end of the year, that would be awesome. But if not, next year."
