Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton reckons the squad is “a little bit behind” Ferrari, following Friday practice for the Canadian Grand Prix.
Hamilton opened proceedings on top on Friday morning, before Kimi Räikkönen moved ahead in the second session, with Hamilton his primary challenger, two-tenths back.
Hamilton, 25 points behind Sebastian Vettel, who classified third, reckons Mercedes has to make marginal gains in order to overhaul Ferrari around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
“It’s been a pretty good first day for the team,” said Hamilton, a five-time winner of the Canadian Grand Prix.
“The Ferraris are looking fast here and as the times show, it’s super close at the top right now.
“I feel like we are still just a little bit behind the red cars at this early stage of the weekend, but we’ll be pushing as hard as we can to close the gap ahead of qualifying on Saturday.
“After a tough weekend in Monaco, the main thing is that our car is already feeling a lot better around Montreal. It should be game on for the rest of the weekend.”
Valtteri Bottas, who finished fourth, reckons Mercedes still has to make progress on the Ultrasoft tyres.
“I think that we are looking quite competitive here, but it’s only practice,” he said.
“After practice two, it’s clear we still have a bit more work to do with the Ultrasoft tyre to get more lap time out of those.
“We’ll focus on finding that edge of extra performance from the Ultrasoft and fine-tuning the set-up overnight.”
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