Hamilton sees gap increasing: 'The car is limited'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Lewis Hamilton had a disappointing Friday in Baku, and the kind we have rarely seen from him in sport. The Englishman finished seventh in the first free practice session and a few hours later he was back down in P11. This is a matter of concern for the driver.
The seven-time world champion felt he had a good day, but did not see it reflected in the final results: "I genuinely had a really good day. It feels clean, I got all the laps that we needed. I didn't make any mistakes, apart from a lock up. In general, I feel like I'm driving well and the car felt better in P1, and this one there's just no more time in it."
Despite this, he knows that Mercedes are well behind rival Red Bull Racing and that "everyone will be scratching their heads trying to figure out how we can improve.
"The long run was better. It didn't feel good in this session, just in general I was pushing on the limit, but the car is limited. There are areas which should be quicker, but there's just no more grip. We'll work on it."
His teammate Valtteri Bottas finished in 16th place in a truly disappointing day for the team: "Of course, it's not easy to be out of the top 10 on pace when we've had pace at other places. But I don't know why we are where we are. Pace wise we haven't gone forwards, looking at today it looks like we've gone backwards. I felt like I genuinely had a good day, just wasn't very fast."
Red Bull Racing makes good impression
Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen, on the other hand, did extremely well during the second free practice session. The Mexican finished with the fastest time, while Verstappen came in just behind in P2. Ferrari also impressed in P3 and P4.