Lewis Hamilton described Friday at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as “a bit of an odd day” following the cancellation for Free Practice 1.
The first session was cancelled after an incident between the Williams Racing of George Russell and a manhole cover but Free Practice 2 went ahead, albeit with two red flags but Hamilton says he was comfortable with the car.
“It’s been a bit of an odd day, but I still enjoyed it.
“FP2 went really well, I was feeling good out there and I was more comfortable in the car than I was last year.”
The championship leader was seven tenths slower than Charles Leclerc in the Scuderia Ferrari and Hamilton knows it will be tough to find the time back but is optimistic about the race pace his Mercedes AMG-Petronas is showing.
“However, the Ferraris are clearly very quick and it looks like they’re quite a bit ahead of us, so we’ll need to investigate to see where we are losing time compared to them.
“It’s unlikely that we will find seven tenths over night, but we’ll do everything we can to push the car in the right direction.
“Our long run pace looked a little bit stronger than our short run pace, so we’ll need to try and find out why.
Despite the gap between the Ferrari and Mercedes, Hamilton is ready for the fight and is looking forward to what qualifying has to offer.
“It should be a good fight tomorrow; I’m always down for a fight and I think that’s what the fans want to see, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
