Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton cut a positive figure after the opening day at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, insisting that Mercedes managed to find an encouraging setup for the challenging Baku street circuit.
Following a difficult Dutch and Italian Grands Prix, Mercedes reverted to the old-spec floor for Baku. Lewis Hamilton was seemingly confident in his modified W15, ending the opening session second before setting the third-quickest lap in the early evening practice.
Elaborating on his performance, the seven-time world champion noted: “Today was a really good day. I enjoyed it from the start as the car felt strong from the first laps on track. We made some positive incremental steps on the set-up.
“There was nothing we had to come back on, and we continued to build throughout. Pace wise, we didn’t complete a huge number of laps on our long run in FP2. We will have to do some comparisons tonight therefore to see where our relative speed is.
“Our usual competitors looked strong, but I think we are there or thereabouts. That is encouraging and was our hope coming into this weekend. We will stay cautious and vigilant though. We will work hard tonight to try and find more gains and see what we can do in qualifying tomorrow.”
His team-mate George Russell had a tough opening day at Baku. The Briton ended up eighth fastest in Free Practice 1 without any apparent issues.
The two-time F1 race winner missed the start of second one-hour session thanks to a precautionary PU change. He then missed a decent chunk of the second session before being called back to the pits with an issue a few minutes before the chequered flag fell.
“Today wasn’t the smoothest Friday we’ve ever had. Unfortunately, we lost a little bit of running time with a precautionary power unit change ahead of FP2.
“After hitting the track, I found the car’s balance to be not perfect. I had difficulty getting the tires to the optimal temperature and was feeling unsure. I will put in extra effort tonight to enhance my performance, elevate my skills for tomorrow, and narrow the distance. Fortunately, Lewis seemed to be performing exceptionally well.
“We are confident in the strength of our car and believe we can be competitive this weekend. The competition appears tight among various teams, especially with Ferrari showing strength. With some improvements overnight, we hope to be competitive during qualifying and the race on Sunday.”
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin expressed optimism while evaluating his team’s performance on the first day of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Lewis had two productive sessions and ended the day satisfied with the performance of the car. His speed appeared reasonable, but we are aware of the specific areas that still need improvement. In general, we are content with the way his weekend has begun.” “In recent races, the competition at the front has been fierce, especially in terms of single lap performance.
Therefore, we will be putting in a lot of effort overnight to uncover any possible ways to improve our lap times.”
George had a tougher day compared to Lewis. He was unhappy with the car’s balance during FP1, which led to us working on improving it throughout the session. After the first practice session ended, there was a problem with the power unit, so we decided to replace it before the second practice session.
This decision resulted in George losing 25 minutes on the track, affecting the planned program.
However, our goal is to make up for lost time in the next practice session according to Shovlin.