Mercedes struggles in this seasons Formula One campaign continued as they missed out on points in Miami.

After Sprint Qualifying in eleventh and twelfth, both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were aiming to move forward in the race and into the point scoring positions.

Despite battling hard during the morning’s F1 Sprint the Silver Arrows were unable to bring home points.

A first corner racing incident caused Russell to lose several positions. The rest of his race was spent in a DRS train and unable to make progress, coming home in twelfth, a place higher than his starting position.

Hamilton meanwhile was entangled in a battle with Kevin Magnussen’ Haas.

Ultimately, he would prevail and then pass RB’s Yuki Tsunoda on the final lap for eighth.

Unfortunately, a 20 second time penalty for speeding in the pitlane demoted him to sixteenth.

Turning their attention to qualifying for the Grand Prix the team made a number of set-up changes with both drivers happier with the car they both progressed to the final session of qualifying.

Russell qualified with his highest position of the sessions in seventh with a time of 1:28.067.

Brit Russell said: “We were struggling throughout the whole of Qualifying to get the tyres into the right place.

“They work within a very small window, and we saw with Lewis in Q2 that, if we were able to get them in a better place, we had good speed. This is the same story for everyone though.

“We have to be realistic and, unless we get the perfect lap, P7 and P8 is about where our car is at currently. We know we have work to do and hopefully tomorrow will be better. 

“In the Sprint earlier in the day, I made a good start but got caught on the outside and lost a few positions.

“After that, I was stuck in a DRS train, so it was quite a processional race. Hopefully we will have a better Grand Prix on Sunday and move forwards.”

While Hamilton starts eighth with a time of 1:28.107 for tomorrow’s Miami Grand Prix.

Speaking after the sessions Hamilton said: “Overall, it’s been a much more positive day than yesterday. That said, these tyres are so sensitive and trying to get them to work consistently lap-to-lap is a challenge.

“The track temperature and grip was similar throughout Qualifying but we still struggled to deliver the maximum potential on each lap.

“We had that glimpse of what was possible at the end of Q2, but we couldn’t deliver it in Q3. It’s an area we are focused on improving. 

“I gave it everything in the Sprint; it was a tough battle out there. Contact is never intentional at the first corner, and I went for a gap. It closed quickly though and several of us connected.

“After that, I was fighting hard to get past the Haas of Magnussen, and I enjoyed the racing. The penalty was unfortunate, and it was a shame that it cost us that final point.”

The team found it difficulty in getting the tyres in the right operating window and it proved challenging in the final segment.

This was illustrated when Hamilton’ best lap was set on his final run in the second session, with his 1:27.697 being nearly four tenths quicker than either of the times set in the top ten shootout.