Despite a wild spin at turn eleven early on during the afternoon session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Friday, Lewis Hamilton felt it was a good opening day to the Mexican Grand Prix weekend, with the championship leader ending second fastest in both sessions.
The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team racer, who can clinch his fourth World Drivers’ Championship this weekend if he finishes fifth or higher on Sunday, finished behind team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the morning session before ending up 0.131 seconds behind Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo in the afternoon.
Hamilton had a great run on the Ultrasoft Pirelli tyre, running twenty-six very consistent laps, although he was disappointed to lose a set of Supersoft tyres thanks to his spin, and he goes into the rest of the weekend without any kind of knowledge of the red-banded tyre.
“It’s been a good day today,” said Hamilton. “It didn’t really start out great, particularly in the second session with the big spin on my first lap.
“That really threw off the session and obviously made it a little bit tricky to get the run on the Supersoft. So I put myself on the back foot. But the single lap and then the long run on the Ultrasoft was probably one of the best I’ve ever done.
“I don’t think I’ve ever done 26 laps that consistent, apart from in the race maybe. We got lots of information, the track was feeling better in the second session once the temperature came up.
“It was great to see all the fans buzzing already today, in the paddock but also in the big grandstands. So overall a good day.”
