Lewis Hamilton doubts he could have gone much faster after finishing outside the top 10 in Azerbaijan on Friday.
The Mercedes driver posted the eleventh fastest time, 1.041 seconds slower than pace-setter Sergio Perez in the Red Bull. But despite his lack of pace, Hamilton said he was happy with his performance.
“To be honest, I generally had a really good day,” said the world champion. “It was clean, I did all the laps we needed, there weren’t really any mistakes – I had a lock-up [first practice]. “
Both Mercedes drivers finished the second practice outside of the top 10, Bottas finished in a low 16th place.
“We’re just slow,” admitted Hamilton. “In general, I feel like I’m driving well and the car felt better [first practice]. There was simply no time left in this one.
“We’re definitely pretty down and I think everyone will scratch their heads and check the data to see how we can improve.”
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Hamilton said his car felt better over the longer term, but he wasn’t generally happy with the handling. “It didn’t feel good in this session,” he said.
Pictures: Azerbaijan Grand Prix training day one“In general, I pushed, I was at the limit, but the car is limited. There are areas where I should just be faster, but there is no more grip. But we will work on it.
“Of course it’s definitely not easy to be in the top 10 when we’ve had pace elsewhere. I don’t know exactly where we are. “
He said it was not clear if the team had made any progress since the difficult race in Monaco two weeks ago. “That’s impossible to say at the moment,” said Hamilton. “In terms of pace, we’ve got nowhere. If anything, today it looks like we went backwards. “
“I felt like I was having a good day in general, I just wasn’t very fast,” he added.
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Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2021
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