Lewis Hamilton sees an “opportunity” to complete a Silverstone sweep after leading Friday practice ahead of the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.
As the British summer once again turned up the heat, Mercedes appeared less flustered than usual in conditions where they do sometimes struggle as they dominated both sessions with a pair of one-two finishes.
But after Valtteri Bottas had set the pace in the morning, it was Hamilton who asserted himself with a narrow advantage in the afternoon, on a day when the team used the time “for a few experiments”.
“I think it’s been generally a good day. We had a good understanding, good findings from last week and made some small adjustments that have cut off a millisecond here and there,” he commented.
Last weekend, the man from Stevenage became the first driver in F1 history to win his home race seven times and, though this one wouldn’t count towards his British GP tally, the prospect of making it eight victories in the UK just a week later is tantalising.
“I see it as an opportunity, of course,” he said, “but Valtteri will be strong and you saw last week anything can happen, particularly early on the last lap, so it will take a lot of analysis and nursing the softer tyres to a point where we can stay up ahead.
“So of course it would be an incredible accomplishment for us as a team and for me, it would be incredible to have two ‘British Grand Prix’ wins, but there’s a lot of work up until then.”
And as for Bottas, the Finn does appear a little more settled to potentially take the fight a little harder to Lewis.
The key to success though this weekend appears to be the topic that dominated the on-track conversation on Friday, tyres.
“We obviously learned quite a lot from last weekend in terms of set-up, so the starting set-up I had today was definitely better than what I had in qualifying or the race last weekend – that was the positive thing,” he said.
“We didn’t really have any issues in terms of balance, it was pretty much there but as for the tyres, they obviously don’t last as long and in these temperatures, these softer tyres are having quite a hard time, especially on high fuel.
“But still, to be honest, the Soft and the Medium have similar pace – I don’t think there’s much between those two compounds.”
