Lewis Hamilton’s glum verdict on qualifying chances as Mercedes ‘lost’ on setup

Lewis Hamilton doubts he’ll be making it into the top 10 in qualifying in Singapore, after a tough day behind the wheel at Marina Bay.

Hamilton finished the practice day in Singapore down in 11th place, almost a second off the pace set by McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Lewis Hamilton: A very challenging day

Speaking to media after stepping out of the car, Hamilton didn’t hide the fact he was feeling quite uncomfortable with the feeling of his Mercedes W15 as his best time was 0.982 off the pace set by Norris.

Mercedes hasn’t brought along any updates for this weekend in Singapore, and is running the older-specification pre-Spa floor design that was on the car for the team’s spectacular run of results prior to the summer break.

“This car, I mean, it feels pretty eesh,” Hamilton grimaced.

“It’s very difficult, and a very challenging day.

“We’ve tried everything setup-wise, and nothing seems to work with the setup. So definitely very challenging.”

Hamilton explained that there are no clear answers for a direction to pursue to improve the situation, as the W15 didn’t respond to any of the changes made.

“We’re really giving it everything, and then you find out you’re a second off – I think, ultimately, we’re just a little bit lost, and we’re not really sure where to put the car,” he said.

“We tried a lot, and achieved the same thing.”

Asked to assess where he might be in the pecking order once the qualifying session rolls around on Saturday evening, Hamilton was matter-of-fact: “At the moment, we won’t be going into Q3.”

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George Russell: Mercedes really off the pace today

Hamilton’s teammate George Russell finished the day in seventh place, almost quarter of a second ahead of Hamilton, but blotted his copybook with a late mistake in FP2.

Locking up his front-right wheel at Turn 8, Russell slid straight on into the wall and knocked off his front wing as the yellow flags were shown to cover the wayward moment.

Russell managed to extricate his car and get back to the pits with a bare nosecone, fortunately not missing out on any track time as a result of the incident.

“Not a lot to say, really, I locked up and took the front wing off,” he explained afterward.

“It was a really challenging Friday for us. We were really off the pace today. We need to understand why that is.

“I’m sure we’ll find some answers tonight, but we’ve made some big changes from FP1 into FP2, but the car’s just not really feeling that well-connected, as it was this time 12 months ago and in recent races. So we need to try and get to the bottom of it.”

As for whether Mercedes can find a big step of improvement overnight, Russell said: “We’re definitely hoping to. There are a lot of surprises out there. The VCARB is really quick. You’ve got the Williams really quick. Red Bull seems to be off the pace, and there seems to be a big gap to the McLarens and the Ferraris.

“So, you know, as a minimum, we hope to be in between that midfield gap and the front four, but right now we’ve got a lot of work on our hands.”