Lewis Hamilton bemoans Mercedes 'still probably a second down' behind rivals at 2022 F1 Singapore GP

Lewis Hamilton feels Mercedes are around a second a lap slower than their rivals at the 2022 F1 Singapore GP. The former world champion had an impressive start to the day as he topped the first practice session. The second free practice session was somewhat inconclusive as Lewis Hamilton's low fuel was not perfect.

Talking to the media afterward, Lewis was not too optimistic and felt the car was bouncing too much. He said,

"It started off well, wasn't as great in the second session. So pretty much like every other weekend I would say. The car is as it is, and bouncing around like crazy. It doesn't feel like we're massively off here this weekend, but we're still probably a second down, I would say, something like that. We have just got to keep working on it."

Lewis Hamilton did concede that he felt there was some time left on the table as he did not have a perfect low fuel run compared to his teammates. He said,

"There's not really much we can do with the bouncing. It just is as it is. Set-up wise, definitely I think George was able to find a little more time. I think there's definitely on my side more time, and I just didn't really get a good lap. I think with the set-up I had a lot of locking, but we'll fix it tonight and come back and give it a better try tomorrow."

Lewis Hamilton's teammate shares similar feedback for the day

Lewis Hamilton's teammate George Russell shared similar feedback about the day and felt the times gave a deceiving picture. He said,

"I need to go through and look at the data because I think Charles did his fastest lap on the medium tyre. I don't know where the Red Bull drivers were. So on paper, it looks okay, but I'm pretty confident that's not the full picture. There's definitely a lot of work to do. It's very, very bumpy out there."

Russell stressed on the importance of nailing the qualifying lap for the weekend as overtaking is going to be tough on this track. He said,

"Tyres are quite sensitive. I think it's going to be one of those that if we can absolutely nail it, there'll be a huge amount of lap time we can find in qualifying. And, as we know, it is normally a qualifying race. But yeah, we'll stay optimistic and work harder overnight."

It will be interesting to see where the Mercedes duo ends up over the weekend.