The Mercedes team had a particularly difficult first day of testing in Singapore with Lewis Hamilton setting the eleventh fastest time, almost a second behind the leaders, and George Russell finishing FP2 in the barriers.
Arriving in Singapore, the Mercedes team expected to be at least as competitive as last year on this track, but it is clear that after the first free practice of the weekend, the German manufacturer’s team is far from the mark even if Russell did indeed finish in the top ten.
“It was a very difficult day for me. I didn’t feel particularly connected with the car throughout the session.” Lewis Hamilton said on Friday evening in Singapore.
“We tried a lot of things on the settings to try to find improvements, but we couldn’t find a major breakthrough.”
“We worked hard as a team to make progress and get closer to the pace of the leaders, but we didn’t achieve that at the end of FP2.”
“It was difficult to know exactly where we needed to put the car in terms of set-up and that’s something we’ll work hard on tonight. We need to find a bit of extra speed or we’ll have a difficult Saturday tomorrow.”
Across the garage, George Russell saw his second free practice session end in the barriers after he missed a brake. The Briton was however able to bring his car back to the pits at a slow pace.
“It was a pretty tough Friday for us. We didn’t have the pace of the leaders today and we have to work hard tonight to understand why.” Russell said after his day of riding.
“The car didn’t seem as well connected as last year or in the last few races. We need to get to the bottom of this if we want to have a weekend where we can fight at the front. I’m sure we’ll find some answers once we’ve studied all the data tonight.”
“The timing screens had a number of surprises for us. Williams and VCARB looked particularly quick compared to recent races, while the Red Bulls seemed to be struggling a little.”
“The McLarens and Ferraris looked to have a comfortable advantage over everyone and we clearly have some work to do to have a chance of taking them on this weekend.”
Results of EL2 in Singapore
