Lewis Hamilton on back foot at Canadian GP after ‘disaster’ Friday

MONTREAL — Lewis Hamilton branded an experimental start to Mercedes’ Canadian Grand Prix a “disaster”.

Hamilton’s form has been up and down this season and he looked out of sorts on Friday, finishing the second session down in 13th.

The first two hours of practice are usually an opportunity to try and find optimal set-ups for qualifying and the race, with teams often trying different things on both cars to try and land on a perfect solution for the competitive session.

Hamilton was picked up saying “this car is so bad” before one of his TV interviews started after Friday practice and he later admitted it was a frustrating day.

“Pretty much like every Friday for us,” Hamilton said. “Trying lots of different thing, an experimental floor on my side that didn’t work. Nothing we do to this car generally seems to work.

“We’re trying different set-ups, me and George, with much different set-ups in this P2 just to see if one way works and one way doesn’t. I’ll wait to hear how it felt for him but for me, it was a disaster. It’s like the car is getting worse. It’s getting more and more unhappy the more we do to it.

“We’ll keep working on it, but it is what it is. I think this is the car for the year, so we’ll just have to tough it out and work hard on building a better car for next year.”

Hamilton’s health was a concern coming into this weekend after he struggled to get out of his car following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he spent the race being violently bounced around inside the car.

The seven-time world champion said he is feeling much better heading into the weekend.

“I managed to get through the day okay and didn’t have any ice baths and stuff on my back, so I’m okay.”