Antonelli 'getting the confidence back' with Mercedes car as team 'make a decent step forward' in Hungary

Kimi Antonelli has claimed he is "getting the confidence back" with his Mercedes car after a positive Friday for the team ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend.

The Italian rookie has endured a difficult spell recently in his maiden Formula 1 campaign, which has included just one points finish in the last seven races and he failed to make it beyond the first segment of Qualifying for both the Sprint and Grand Prix last time out in Belgium.

Mercedes has reverted to an older specification of suspension for the race in Budapest, with the change seemingly producing an upturn in form for Antonelli as he claimed seventh ahead of team mate George Russell in FP1, before finishing 10th fastest later in the afternoon.

"Today was nice. I'm pretty happy because I'm getting the confidence back with the car," said the 18-year-old.

"Still missing a little bit to the guys in front but I think we're working well, we've been changing the car a lot because obviously it felt like a big step with the old suspension.

"The car was completely different and we're just trying to rebalance the car. Long run was good in FP2, just the soft I had a bit of traffic last sector and the lap was not super clean but good feelings ahead of tomorrow."

Russell claimed seventh in the second session and was also pleased with the step that the Silver Arrows had made after struggling in Belgium.

But the Briton claimed that they still lacked pace compared with the leading teams on the grid and that more work was needed ahead of Sunday's 70-lap race.

"It always feels good when you're a bit higher up the leaderboard," said the 27-year-old, who has taken one win this season in Canada.

"Bit of a strange day, obviously the Aston Martins looked unusually fast today, they seemed to make a decent step forward. McLaren are obviously in a league of their own.

"We just need to find that last little bit for it to start clicking again for us. Today it wasn't a breakthrough but it wasn't like we were expecting it to be a breakthrough. We've just to keep on chipping away."