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Lewis Hamilton cut a sorry figure after the first day of running at the F1 Singapore GP, with the Mercedes driver declaring that nothing seemed to work with the car. Singapore is a track that offers a unique challenge to the teams, and that involves having the ability to keep the tires in the optimum window, ride the kerbs, and have strong traction out of braking zones.
During FP1 and FP2, looking at Lewis Hamilton's onboards as well, it was more than evident that the car was not doing what it was supposed to. The Mercedes driver seemed to struggle with the car throughout the lap to extract optimal lap times.
Despite his efforts, Lewis Hamilton was almost a whopping one second slower in both sessions than the benchmark times, while teams like RB and Williams were able to extract more from their respective cars.
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Things weren't much better for Lewis Hamilton's teammate George Russell either, as he was also almost 8 tenths down on the benchmark time in FP2. Talking to the media, a bemused Hamilton said that nothing appears to work with the car. He told F1TV,
“We’ve tried everything set-up wise and nothing seems to work with the set-up, so definitely very challenging. We’re really giving it everything and then you find out you’re a second off. I think ultimately [we’re] just a little bit lost and we’re not really sure where to put the car. At the moment, I won’t be going into Q3,” Hamilton said.
Lewis Hamilton's teammate slightly more optimistic about Mercedes prospects
Lewis Hamilton's teammate George Russell was relatively more optimistic as he expected the team to make improvements overnight. George had a poor FP1 where he was 1.5 seconds slower than the benchmark. From that point onwards, the driver improved to get within 8 tenths of the benchmark and expressed hope of overnight improvements paving the way for a better setup and better feeling within the car.
Talking to the media, George said that the car didn't feel as glued to the track as it did last season, and hence, overnight improvements would prove vital for a result. Russell said (via F1TV):
“We were really off the pace today – we need to understand why that is. I’m sure we’ll find some answers tonight. We made some big changes from FP1 into FP2, but the car’s just not feeling that well connected as it was this time 12 months ago and in recent races, so we need to try and get to the bottom of it," Russell said.
Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton would be hoping to get a better grip on the situation because otherwise, the team could potentially be heading towards a subpar result come race day.
