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Hamilton went in different direction: 'Hopefully better during the race'
For Lewis Hamilton, it was not a qualifying to his liking in Bahrain. The seven-time world champion drove the fastest time in FP2, but a day later he had to settle for ninth place. Talking to GPblog and others, the Brit tells his story.
"Yesterday, George [Russell] and I were identical car setups. I was feeling great. He went one way and I went the other. You could say that the one I was on is not good on a single lap. I hope that it's good in the race," said Hamilton, who saw his teammate drive the third fastetst time at the Bahrain International Circuit.
The driver - who will switch to Ferrari next year - was then asked why he decided to change direction yesterday. "I wasn't comfortable with my race pace. So I changed the car to hopefully make the race pace better. We'll see tomorrow if that is really the case. Trying to find a good balance because the race pace has lost the degradation with the rears. Race pace is really everything here. Obviously, position helps as well."
Mercedes have stepped up
The number three of last year's World Championship finds it "amazing to see how close everyone is". "I think George's position is a real testament to just how amazing the job everyone's done at the factory, finally giving us a car that we can fight with," Hamilton said.