Lewis Hamilton was encouraged by Mercedes’ performance in the first day of practice for the Japanese Grand Prix.
He set the fifth-quickest time in the opening hour of running, within half a second of pace-setter Max Verstappen. Although Hamilton improved to second place in the later session, most drivers did not set times due to the damp conditions.
However he said the W15 felt better than ever in first practice. “It was a great session,” said Hamilton. “It was a really good session for us, it was the best session that we’ve had this year, the best the car has felt this year so far.
“So it felt really positive and I was really excited because this is a circuit that every driver loves to drive.”
Mercedes have shown flashes of potential in practice sessions so far this year but are yet to finish higher than fifth in a race. Hamilton praised the work the team has done since the Australian Grand Prix to improve its car.
“The last couple of years we’ve had a really difficult balance, really difficult car and a difficult balance to drive here,” he said. “And given the difficult last few races we’ve had, great work’s been done this past week and we just seem to have hit the ground a bit more in a sweeter spot. So I haven’t really made any changes since.”
He believes the team needs to avoid changing its car’s balance too much over the rest of the weekend. “I think we’ve got a better platform or baseline to start from,” said Hamilton. “So as long as we don’t make too many changes in and mess it up, I think probably just stay where we are.”
His team mate George Russell agreed they “definitely performed better than we expected” in first practice which “was a pleasant surprise.” However he regretted the lost opportunity to test set-up changes in the second session.
“The car was feeling really nice to drive and Lewis and I were really, really happy with the balance,” he said. “It has been performing better when it’s been slightly colder, but we’ve been doing a lot of test items to try and make that car a little bit more consistent when conditions are variable.
“So, time will tell. FP2 was definitely a miss for everybody as we had some interesting things we wanted to try. But that’s the nature of Formula 1 sometimes.”
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2024 Japanese Grand Prix
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