Lewis Hamilton believes the opening day of practice for the Belgian Grand Prix was straightforward.
The Mercedes AMG PETRONAS driver finished the opening practice session in second, only 0.730s behind team-mate Nico Rosberg. For this session, Hamilton ran fresh a power unit that resulted in a fifteen-place grid penalty.
The reigning world champion was unable to increase his performance in FP2, with Hamilton finishing the afternoon session in thirteenth with a time of 1:49.782 behind the McLaren-Honda of Fernando Alonso. The team confirmed that Hamilton would receive a further fifteen-place grid penalty after using a fresh power unit during FP2, bringing his current grid drop tally up to thirty.
Even with all these engine changes, Hamilton believes today was straightforward for himself, but a tough one for his mechanics with the engine change.
“A straightforward day for me but a tough one for the guys in the garage with the engine change,” said Hamilton. “Massive respect and a big thanks to them for all their hard work.
“It was actually quite tough to look after the tyres out there as the pressures are so high. But everyone is in the same position and it looks like we’re all experiencing the same thing. The important thing is that we got through our programme smoothly today and can start focusing on the rest of the weekend.”
