Hamilton led both free practice sessions on the Jeddah Corniche Street Circuit and left his team-mate Valtteri Bottas and AlphaTauris Pierre Gasly just behind in the second session.
His title rival Max Verstappen finished fourth in the Red Bull in FP2, two tenths behind Hamilton, after the Dutchman finished just second behind the world champion in the first session.
Although Hamilton is the fastest out of the gate, he believes his Mercedes car still needs work at a single lap pace while he’s happier on the long runs.
“We’re not fast on the individual lap, I would say compared to the others, but it’s not that bad on the long track,” reported Hamilton on Friday evening.
“We made some changes between sessions. I’m not sure which one to stay with.
“We’re going to study tonight and work with the guys at the factory to make sure we can find the right setup tomorrow. It’s definitely not in a bad place.
“I think like I said, in a single round they did [Red Bull] are pretty fast, so we still have a little work to do. “
Mercedes track engineer Andrew Shovlin explained that the problem with the one-lap team is getting the most out of Pirelli’s softest tire compound over a lap in nighttime conditions, as the tires are supposedly on the soft side for that particular track.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“I think we’re happy with the car’s long-term performance,” Shovlin told Sky. “Single lap, we were happier this morning than we were in the afternoon and struggled to get the grip out of the tires, especially on the soft ones.
“Now we have some ideas of what we can do there to understand our own problem, and we will only be busy tonight trying to improve it.
“The morning was a happier situation for us when the track was a bit warmer. We definitely had problems in the night session.
“It looked strong in the long run and that suggests the base performance is in the car. We just have to do all the fine-tuning to get the tires in the right window for this single lap in Q3.”
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