Lewis Hamilton has placed doubt on Mercedes even being able to progress to Q3 at Formula 1‘s Singapore Grand Prix based on the team’s speed throughout practice.
Hamilton endured a challenging time around the Marina Bay Circuit as he wound up 12th in the opening practice hour and languished outside the top 10 again in FP2.
The seven-time F1 champion ended up 11th on the times in the second practice session, almost an entire second down on Lando Norris’ leading time in the McLaren.
Hamilton has conceded that Mercedes’ troubles to optimise the set-up on the W15 are so severe that he could even struggle to advance to the pole position shootout.
“At the moment, we won’t be going into Q3,” Hamilton assessed. “It’s very difficult. A very challenging day.
“We tried everything set-up wise and nothing seems to work with the set-up. So definitely very challenging.
“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 I’m not really sure where to put the car.”
Russell admits Mercedes has work to do
Mercedes team-mate George Russell was two-tenths quicker in FP2 to place seventh overall, but he lost his front wing when he understeered into the barrier at Turn 8.
The Briton concurred with Hamilton’s comments as he expressed that the German marque has extensive work to do overnight to get into a more competitive position.
“It was really challenging Friday for us,” he proclaimed. “We were really off the pace today, we need to understand why that is. I’m sure we’ll find some answers tonight.
“We made some big changes from FP1 in to FP2. But the car’s just not really feeling that well connected as it was this time 12 months ago and in recent races.
“So we need to try to get to the bottom of it.”
Russell admitted that there were “a lot of surprises” throughout the grid as he eclipsed both Red Bulls but lagged behind Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo’s RB cars.
“You’ve got the [RBs] really quick, the Williams is really quick, Red Bull seemed to be off the pace and there seems to be a big gap to the McLarens and the Ferraris,” he said.
“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.”
