So far as Fridays go, the Friday forward of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was a powerful one for Lewis Hamilton in Baku.
The seven-time champion posted the second-fastest time throughout FP1 and was third-fastest in FP2. Whereas he ran a mixture of laps on the medium after which the smooth compound in FP1, Hamilton noticed all three compounds bolted onto his W15 for the second session.
Might this be an indication that Mercedes are within the combine this weekend?
“At this time was a extremely good day. I loved it from the beginning because the automotive felt robust from the primary laps on observe,” mentioned Hamilton within the staff’s post-practice report. “We made some optimistic incremental steps on the set-up. There was nothing we needed to come again on, and we continued to construct all through.”
Hamilton did supply some phrases of warning relating to their longer runs, as there may nonetheless be some questions the staff must reply.
“Tempo clever, we didn’t full an enormous variety of laps on our long term in FP2. We must do some comparisons tonight due to this fact to see the place our relative velocity is. Our standard opponents appeared robust, however I feel we’re there or thereabouts,” added Hamilton. “That’s encouraging and was our hope coming into this weekend. We are going to keep cautious and vigilant although. We are going to work laborious tonight to attempt to discover extra positive factors and see what we are able to do in qualifying tomorrow.”
Issues have been somewhat more durable for George Russell on the opposite aspect of Mercedes’ storage, as Russell was simply P8 in FP1 and P9 in FP2. Russell additionally misplaced a while because the staff wanted to make a “precautionary” energy unit change. Nonetheless, whereas it was not the “smoothest” of days for Russell, he’s inspired heading into the weekend, notably by Hamilton’s tempo.
“At this time wasn’t the smoothest Friday we’ve ever had. Sadly, we misplaced somewhat little bit of working time with a precautionary energy unit change forward of FP2,” described Russell. “As soon as we have been out on observe, I wasn’t utterly proud of the stability of the automotive. I used to be struggling to get the tires in the appropriate window and was missing somewhat confidence. I’ll work laborious in a single day to enhance on that, step my sport up for tomorrow and shut the hole.
”The excellent news is that Lewis was trying very fast on the market. It encourages us that the automotive is robust, and we will be aggressive this weekend,” added Russell. “It appears very shut between a number of groups, with Ferrari particularly trying robust. If we are able to make enhancements in a single day although we are able to intention to be within the combine for qualifying and the race on Sunday.”
