Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell bemoaned the very hot weather after a difficult start to their Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.
Having won the last two races in Austria and Silverstone, the Mercedes duo were full of confidence heading into race 13 of the Formula 1 season.
But during Friday practice at the Hungaroring didn’t go to plan for the Silver Arrows who appear to be lagging behind Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari again.
Russell finished the second session fifth, with Hamilton seventh, but both were over half-a-second slower than pace setter Lando Norris, while Carlos Sainz topped the first session.
Having looked much improved over the last few grand prix, it was a surprise to see the two Brits off the pace but both drivers have suggested that the intense heat in Hungary is causing their cars’ issues.
‘It’s definitely very hot. Beautiful in Budapest as always!’ Hamilton told Sky Sports afterward with temperatures reaching 34°C at the circuit.
‘Today’s not been a good day, really. The weather has been good and it’s been nice to be here but we’ve not really been on form today. Felt just as bad as it does normally when it’s hot.
‘The car hasn’t felt good set-up-wise but we think we have an idea why and we’ll just work overnight. It’s not the best prep so far. There’s a particular thing that we’ve changed this weekend which we probably need to go back on.
‘But it’s all relatively close otherwise. We couldn’t do the pace of the other guys today but the long run pace was pretty decent in the end.’
As has been the case with previous Mercedes cars, the W15 performs better in cooler conditions like Canada where Russell took pole and finished on the podium and Silverstone where Russell again started first but Hamilton took victory.
‘McLaren looks really quick, Lando is flying at the moment,’ Russell added.
‘I don’t think Max is too far behind. I think there’s a power difference between those two in the qualifying laps.
‘It was really hit. Not as bad in the car as I was expecting! But for everyone in the garage… I think it’s about 40 degrees.
‘We need to understand because in the hot conditions of Austria and Barcelona we were off the pace of those two drivers. In the cooler conditions of Silverstone we were ahead of those two. That’s something we need to work on.’
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