George Russell struggled with engine problems on Friday in Baku, while Lewis Hamilton was extremely happy with the pace of his Mercedes
Mercedes had a difficult day of practice in Baku on Friday. Although the Silver Arrows, who were driving without the new underbody, were close to the top in terms of times, not everything went smoothly for the team
At the end of the first session, Mercedes suspected George Russell had an engine leak and sent him to the garage. “We thought we had a water leak, but we didn’t,” says the Briton. “At the end of the day, it was a sensor fault.”
Nevertheless, Mercedes carried out an engine change between the two sessions and reinstalled an old power unit from Russell’s pool. However, because the crew was not ready in time for the start of the second session, Russell was only able to take to the track after a significant delay.
“That obviously delayed our session, but we also had a problem at the end of the session,” he explains, without knowing any more about it. Conclusion: “It wasn’t our best Friday, that’s for sure. ”
Good performance from Hamilton
Russell finished the day in ninth place, one second behind leader Charles Leclerc. “I didn’t feel great and had a few problems,” he says. “Compared to Lewis, I was definitely way off the pace. I had problems with confidence in the car and getting my tires in the right window.”
But he also tries to see the positives: “Lewis looked fast, so we know the car is capable of something strong. ”
“Box at the end of this lap, we have an issue with the car.”
Mercedes call George Russell’s FP2 to a slightly premature end. F1 AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/oBYVq093fm
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Because Hamilton finished Friday third fastest, just 0.066 seconds behind first place, and speaks of a good day: “It was fun today,” he says. “I was able to find my feet quickly and make good progress with the set-up. And for once I don’t have the feeling that we still have some catching up to do.”
Mercedes had decided before the weekend not to race with the new underbody, which had caused problems from Spa onwards. The aim is to find out whether the recent drop in performance really has anything to do with the upgrade.
However, Hamilton finds the initial comparison difficult: “It’s really difficult to say how the car would have felt with the other underbody,” he says. “It’s hard to feel a difference between the two at all, but I’m not unhappy with the one we have. “
Mercedes is still in the dark
Mercedes are not sure what they will achieve this weekend, as Ferrari and Red Bull in particular looked strong, according to Hamilton. He says: “On a day like this you never know what everyone’s fuel levels are and often everyone makes a move in third practice or qualifying.”
“I think we will remain cautious and just try to do our best with what we have available. I hope we are closer to the top than it looks, but we will find out tomorrow. “
Even Head of Motorsport Toto Wolff is still struggling to give an outlook: “You can’t really read it,” the Austrian told Sky and sees the field close together at the front – especially over one lap.
On the long run, however, the Silver Arrows still have something to worry about: “We tried a bit of a long run with the George on the hard [tires],” he says. The performance curve should have slowly flattened out, “but it got worse and worse,” says Wolff.
