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Hamilton left scratching his head in Baku: 'Barely changed the car'
Lewis Hamilton has expressed confusion after "barely changing anything" overnight before qualifying. The seven-time World Champion ended up around half a second behind his Mercedes teammate George Russell and nearly one full second away from Charles Leclerc's blistering pole position time for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. This comes 24 hours after Hamilton finished in the top three for both Friday practice sessions in Baku.
Things were looking positive for Hamilton after Friday practice. The Brit almost topped FP2, by being just 0.066 seconds behind Leclerc's fastest time in that session. He perhaps would've expected a better result than seventh in qualifying.
"In FP1 and FP2, the car felt amazing, and I was really on it. Literally from lap one," Hamilton told GPblog and others in the paddock before wondering whether other teams are adding more fuel to their cars on Fridays. "It felt great yesterday [Friday]. I barely changed anything to the car, because I didn't want to mess anything up, and the tyres wouldn't work. All day it did not work. I think the last lap, the last sector, the tyres just started to work," Hamilton said.
How is the Mercedes floor for Hamilton?
Mercedes introduced a new floor at the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, before taking it off for the meaningful sessions at Spa. Across the finish line, Mercedes finished first and second in the Grand Prix, though Russell lost his P1 due to a disqualification. The new floor returned in Zandvoort and Monza, and Mercedes experienced tough weekends. This weekend, Mercedes have tried returning to the floor which helped Hamilton win in Silverstone.
Hamilton was asked how he found it during qualifying. "They're very, very similar between the new one and the old one, so I think it was a good test for us to go back. We won on this floor before. It's a bit older, so it's a little bit heavier compared to the new floor, but I think it's a good floor," Hamilton added.
"It's difficult to say whether that was the problem because we were in the same position we were in the last race. There's not a big difference between the two. But the car was feeling great yesterday. Hopefully tomorrow is better," Hamilton concluded.
The Brit will compete in his 349th Grand Prix on Sunday when the lights go out in Azerbaijan. He must overtake the Red Bulls, the Ferraris, Oscar Piastri, and possibly his teammate (penalty-dependent) to win the race while withstanding the pressure from behind.
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17 September 2024
