Hamilton unsure about Q3 reach after bad Friday in Singapore
Tereza Hořínková
News.gp journalist and a girl with big dreams
Mercedes faced a challenging start in Singapore, with both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell struggling to find consistent pace. Russell's day ended early after a small crash in FP2, while Hamilton complained about the car setup the whole day.
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Despite being expected as a part of the top-four-teams battle at the Singapore Grand Prix, both of Mercedes drivers struggled in FP1 and FP2. The British drivers complained about the lack of the W15 performance and a wrong setup.
Lewis Hamilton failed to break into the top 10 in either of Friday's practice sessions, finishing the day almost 1 second behind Lando Norris’ pace.
Mercedes made some adjustments to the car’s setup, which doesn’t seem to impress the seven-time world champion as he thinks he might not be able to make Q3 in qualifying.
“We’ve tried everything set-up wise and nothing seems to work with the set-up, so definitely very challenging,” Hamilton said.
“We’re really giving it everything and then you find out you’re a second off.
“I think ultimately [we’re] just a little bit lost and we’re not really sure where to put the car. At the moment, I won’t be going into Q3,” he added disappointed.
George Russell, who found himself in the wall during the last minutes of FP2 and destroyed his car’s front wing, agreed with his teammate but seemed a bit more optimistic, going into Saturday.
“We were really off the pace today – we need to understand why that is,” he said.
“I’m sure we’ll find some answers tonight.
“We made some big changes from FP1 into FP2, but the car’s just not feeling that well connected as it was this time 12 months ago and in recent races, so we need to try and get to the bottom of it.
“There’s a lot of surprises out there – you’ve got the VCARBs really quick, you’ve got the Williams really quick.
“The Red Bulls seemed to be off the pace and there seems to be a big gap to the McLarens and the Ferraris, so as a minimum we hope to be in between that midfield gap and the front four, but right now we’ve got a lot of work on our hands.”
Ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, Mercedes sits fourth in the Constructor's Championship standings, trailing the other top teams with 309 points. They are 116 points behind third-placed Ferrari and 167 points behind the new championship leader, McLaren.
