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The F1 champion team arrived in the last week of the pre-season with a substantial overhaul of its W10 design.
Lewis Hamilton covered 83 laps in the morning, but when Valtteri Bottas took over for the afternoon session, the car stopped on his lap. Mercedes undertook a quick engine change as a precaution in response to the oil pressure problem she had encountered, but Bottas did not have the time until seven more laps at the end of the day.
The technical director, James Allison, revealed that the package proposed by Mercedes complied with the specifications of the Australian Grand Prix, and sufficiently different from the version of the first week so that the loss of mileage is a problem.
"It was not exactly the day we were hoping to: use for the first time the body kit that we plan to use in Melbourne, with much of the day lost due to a pressure problem. Oil at lunch time, "said Allison. "Nevertheless, on both sides of this problem, we took some useful steps, finding that the car behaves a little differently with the new package.
"We look forward to having a trouble-free day tomorrow to better understand what it can do."
Hamilton described the revised Mercedes as "feeling relatively good" and "an improvement over last week, which is a good step forward".
Bottas pointed out that the car had provided "four days of unrelenting reliability last week" before Tuesday's problem and congratulated Mercedes for its fast engine change.
"The team did a great job getting the car out again; it was important to have an idea of the new aerodynamic package, "he said. "My race was obviously very limited, but it seems we have made improvements."
Mercedes' likely rival for the title, Ferrari, also lost the race Tuesday while Charles Leclerc was limited to 29 laps during the morning session.
Ferrari said Leclerc's long absence on the runway was "because the SF90's cooling system needed to be checked".
The car was working well when Sebastian Vettel took over for the afternoon, allowing the German to cover 81 laps.
"We did fewer laps than we expected, but I'm sure we'll be able to make up for lost work in the next few days," said Leclerc.
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