Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes is behind its rivals in Monaco but is “not completely in the dark” in comparison to last year.
Mercedes struggled around the streets of Monaco 12 months ago, with Hamilton only seventh in the race, after being eliminated from Q2, while Valtteri Bottas placed fourth – the sole podium in 2017 not to feature Mercedes.
Hamilton jostled with Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen for top spot in FP1 on Thursday and wound up third, before slipping to fourth in FP2, 0.695s behind the Australian.
While aware that Mercedes’ W09 “felt bad” in some areas, Hamilton remains confident that the team can be firmly in the hunt for overall honours, unlike last year’s corresponding event.
“It's been an okay day, we didn't suffer any damage, which is a good thing,” said Hamilton.
“I said yesterday the Red Bulls were going to be quick which they were today. As expected, we struggled a little bit more.
“The car felt good in some places, in others it felt bad. So we have got some things to work on, but we're not completely in the dark; we're in a much better place than we were last year.
“We're closer to Red Bull and Ferrari than I expected, but we're still a few tenths off.
“We've got some ground to cover and pick up if we want to be in the fight for the win. We've got to keep working on the set-up and try and see if we can pull out some more potential from the car.”
Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas lacked pace comparatively, taking seventh in FP1 and sixth in FP2, his best effort 0.801s down on Ricciardo’s quickest time.
“As we expected it was quite difficult,” said Bottas. “We thought that Red Bull and Ferrari were going to be quick here and they were.
“The car didn't feel great in FP1 and we struggled a bit on the HyperSoft tyres. In FP2, we got it to work better.
“The gaps between the three teams are not too big though, which is good. We know our car has a lot of pace, but it is difficult to find the right set-up for this track.
“If we can find a good set-up and get some good laps in for qualifying, we should be able to fight for the pole, but I think it will be the most challenging qualifying session we've had this year.”
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