Mercedes to ramp up work on finding tyre wear breakthrough at Spanish GP

Mercedes will test some ideas aimed at alleviating their W04's problems with rear tyre wear at next week's Spanish GP as they continue attempts to improve the car's race performance.

Lewis Hamilton returns to Europe in a strong third place in the Drivers' Championship after securing top-five finishes in each of his first four races for Mercedes and the Briton, in addition to now feeling fully settled in his new team's car, is eager to see how their Spanish GP pace matches up to their Barcelona testing form. "We've been boosted by the results that we've had at the start of the season and to come away from the first four races with two third and two fifth places feels like a real achievement," Hamilton said. "I'm feeling very comfortable in the car now and we know the areas that we need to improve so a lot of effort is being put in to close that gap to the front-runners. "Barcelona should be a good test as we know the circuit so well having completed most of the pre-season test programme there. The weekend should be a good benchmark of the progress we have made since then."