Hamilton says more work needed after difficult day
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Mercedes' British driver Lewis Hamilton takes part in the second free practice session of the Spanish Formula One Grand Prix.
PHOTO: AFP
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BARCELONA - Lewis Hamilton endured a ‘difficult day’ and said more work was needed on his upgraded Mercedes after struggling to 11th place in Friday’s practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The seven-time champion said he felt that his revised car was ‘not terrible’ on long runs, but he added that he needed to extract more speed on single laps.
“It’s ok,” he said. “We’re fighting as hard as we can - it’s been a difficult day, in P1 and P2, working to get on top of the tyres and the ‘deg’ - and it so different from last week, of course,” he said.
“The long run pace was not terrible, but we need to work on extracting more on a single lap.”
Asked how it felt, he replied: “The car feels like... the car.”
He added the revised final sector of the track, at the Circuit de Catalunya, was a big improvement with the removal of the chicane. “The final corners are awesome now,” he said.
“Very fast. I much prefer it to the small chicane that was there, but I haven’t followed anyone there yet, but it’s going to be tough through there for the degradation.
“From today’s pace, it’s been a struggle for me to get nto the top ten, but we plan some changes overnight. It’s so close between us all from fifth down to P10 and impressive to see all the improvements by everyone.
“Ocon and Alpine look so good and Aston Martin are up to one-tenth from Red Bull which is so impressive.”
He added that possible wet weather “can always bring a helping hand” but promised to “work hard tonight to get on top of it.”
Team-mate George Russell was eighth and said: “It’s been fun to drive the new version of the circuit... We’ve learned a huge amount and can dig into the data now.
“We are not Friday specialists, but we will do what we can, learn from it and move forward tomorrow.”
Defending double world champion Max Verstappen topped the times in both sessions for Red Bull, outpacing Aston Martin’s two-time champion Fernando Alonso at the end of the day ahead of Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg. AFP
