“A big thank you to everyone at [the factories in] Brackley and Brixworth for the efforts they’ve put in to deliver that over the past year. I’m really grateful for all their hard work.”

Hamilton, who will be in the cockpit again on Friday morning, before handing over to Russell, added: “We’ve still got progress to make of course. But this is a good foundation for us to build on.

“We’ll keep our heads down and continue to work to find improvements, both over the rest of the test and into next week.”