Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Hamilton fears Mercedes are going backwards in Baku
LEWIS Hamilton finished only 11th in second practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on a day to forget for the world champion and his struggling Mercedes team.
While rivals Red Bull set the pace in Baku – with Sergio Perez fastest in the day’s concluding running after Max Verstappen went quickest in the opening session – Hamilton was more than a second adrift.
The seven-time world champion will have been hoping to bounce back from a bad weekend in Monaco with the Silver Arrows unable to take the challenge to Verstappen.
But Hamilton, who was seventh in Monte Carlo, heads into the rest of the weekend facing an uphill challenge to prevent Verstappen from extending his four-point championship lead after the worst day of practice for Mercedes in recent memory.
Hamilton ran off the track in the first session to finish seventh before falling even further down the order later in the day.
“I am not going to go any faster,” the seven-time world champion, an eye-watering 1.049 sec slower than Perez, said over the radio. “I don’t know where all the time is.”
Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas fared even worse, 16th of the 20 runners and 2.1 sec down.
“We are just slow,” said Hamilton at the conclusion of play. “I feel like I am driving well. The car felt better in the opening session and then in FP2 there was just no more time in it.
“We are quite a chunk down, and everyone will be scratching their heads and looking into the data and trying to figure out how we can improve. It didn’t feel good. I was pushing, and on the limit, but the car is limited. There are areas where I should be quicker, but there is just no more grip so we will work on it.
“It is not easy to be out of the top ten on pace, and I don’t really know why we are where we are. It looks like we have gone backwards.”
Lando Norris was eighth for McLaren, 0.903 seconds slower than Perez. The Somerset driver might have finished fastest in the opening session for the first time in his career, but he spun on the exit of what is effectively the final corner ahead of the long drag to the finish line.
Meanwhile, the Singapore Grand Prix has been cancelled for a second season in succession. The night race was due to take place in October, but Covid travel restrictions in the state mean it can no longer go ahead.