Lewis Hamilton has said that he is happy that the Mercedes car is beginning to make progress in terms of its performance but that he still needs to get more out of it himself.

The Briton has had a tough start to the campaign with the W13 proving a difficult bit of equipment for he and team-mate George Russell to get on top of.

Indeed, it has suffered with porpoising more than pretty much any other car on the grid and that has hampered set-up and, in turn, lap time.

It's been odd seeing the Merc so off of the leading pace but, this weekend, it appears as though they've begun to turn a corner.

Russell lines up in 4th for the Grand Prix in Spain this afternoon, whilst Hamilton is 6th, and though that isn't where he wants to be in the long-run, Hamilton has said he's happy with the progress being made.

He did say, though, that he still needs to get the hang of the car a bit more than he has thus far:

“I’m still way off. My team-mate’s fourth. So that means the car should be at least third or fourth and I’m in sixth,” Hamilton told the gathered press here in Spain.

“I’m still struggling with the car. I don’t know how to get around that, I don’t know what I’m going to do but I will just continue to try and work hard and figure it out.

BARCELONA, SPAIN - MAY 21: Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team W13 on track during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Spain at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on May 21, 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)

“We don’t have the bouncing in a straight line which is a huge, huge difference.

“But we still have the bouncing in turn three and nine so we’ve still got some improvements to make but the car’s a lot, lot better.

“Now I’m just waiting for the engineers and the aerodynamicists to come through with some more bits for us to progress.”