Lewis Hamilton wasn’t happy with the feeling of his Mercedes W04 after the first day’s running at the British Grand Prix despite finishing fifth quickest. The Briton was seven tenths shy of his teammate Nico Rosberg and says he needs to improve the balance of his car in order to close the gap.
“We had quite a challenging day today and definitely have more to learn tomorrow. I’m struggling a little with the balance of my car so there’s some work to do overnight to get us into shape for qualifying. We haven’t quite got it hooked up yet and you can really tell that on this circuit, particularly with Becketts and Maggots. I’m confident we’ll fix it tomorrow though. It’s great for the British fans here that they were able to see some track action this afternoon after the rain this morning and a big thank you to everyone for sticking with us. Hopefully the weather will improve tomorrow!”
Meanwhile, Rosberg was fastest of all in the sister car and is comfortable with the performance in qualifying trim although the concerns surrounding his race pace remain.
“It was a pity for the fans that we didn’t do much running this morning so it was good for them and for us that it was dry this afternoon. On one lap the car is still quick, so qualifying should be okay. But the question mark is our race speed. We practised the race speed today and it felt decent so far. But it could be a completely different picture on Sunday as the weather should be a lot warmer, so we don’t know where we are right now compared to the others. I’m still quite confident that we can have a good weekend in front of our fans, our colleagues and their families”.