Speaking of Friday, it was a strong day for Lewis Hamilton in Baku before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The seven-time champion set the second-fastest time in FP1 and the third-fastest in FP2. After completing several laps on a combination of medium and soft compounds in FP1, Hamilton's W15 was fitted with all three compounds for the second session.
Is this a sign that Mercedes will be in contention for the win this weekend?
“It was a really good day today. The car felt strong from the first few laps on track so I enjoyed it right from the start,” Hamilton said in the team's post-practice report. “We made positive progress with the set-up, there was nothing we had to go back on and we just kept building from start to finish.”
Hamilton offered some caution regarding the long distance runs, saying there may still be some questions the team needs to answer.
“Pace-wise, we didn't get many laps in the long runs in FP2, so we need to compare tonight and see where our relative speed is. Our usual rivals looked strong but I think we were reasonably fast,” Hamilton added. “That's encouraging and gives us hope going into this weekend, but we'll remain cautious and try hard to get more pace tonight and see what we can do in qualifying tomorrow.”
At the other end of the Mercedes garage, things were a little tougher for George Russell, who could only manage eighth in FP1 and ninth in FP2. He also lost time as the team had to make a “precautionary” power unit change. Still, while it wasn't the “smoothest” day for Russell, he is encouraged ahead of the weekend, especially by Hamilton's pace.
“Today wasn't our smoothest Friday so far and unfortunately we lost a bit of track time due to a precautionary power unit change before FP2,” Russell said. “Once we were out on track I wasn't entirely happy with the balance of the car, we struggled to get the tyres in the right window and felt a bit lacking in confidence. We worked hard all night to improve that and will now step up our game for tomorrow and close the gap.”
“The good news is that Lewis was pretty quick and it's encouraging for us that the car is strong and we can be competitive this weekend,” Russell added. “The competition between a few teams is very strong, especially Ferrari, so if we can improve overnight we can aim to be up front in qualifying and in the race on Sunday.”
