Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will be looking to their team to unlock some more performance and tweak the setup on their cars so they can challenge for pole position and victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Mercedes pair were bettered during the first day of practice by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Ferrari’s world championship leader Sebastian Vettel.
Hamilton was only fifth after the opening two practice sessions on day one in Hungary, with Ricciardo topping the timing screens at the end of both sessions on Friday.
Vettel was second fastest in FP1 and FP2 for Ferrari, ahead of Bottas who has also become a championship contender thanks to a series of strong results in recent races.
“It wasn’t the easiest start to the weekend, with the conditions so gusty,” said Hamilton. “We ended the day in fifth, but there’s clearly good pace in the car.”
“It’s super-tight between Ferrari, Red Bull and ourselves at the top of the leader board, so it’s looking like it will be an exciting weekend. There’s some more work to do overnight to fine-tune the balance to get the car just where we want it and I believe the pace is in there.”
We just need to unlock it ahead of qualifying because every tenth is going to be crucial with three teams in the mix,” added Hamilton who is chasing his fourth F1 world title and is just one point behind Vettel in the championship after ten rounds.
Bottas, who was faster than his teammate on the opening day, said: “We have some work to do. The three teams at the front seemed very close.”
“I was not quite happy with the balance of the car and I was especially struggling with the rear end. The temperatures are expected to rise, which means that we really need to get the rear end of the car more stable.”
Mercedes technical boss James Allison agreed with his drivers at the end of the first day, “We clearly still got more work to do before we achieve the right balance between having a quick car in qualifying and one that will have good tyre usage in the race.”
Big Question: Are Mercedes on the back foot in Hungary?
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