On what could well be a championship-deciding weekend, Lewis Hamilton believes he produced “one of the best” qualifying and race simulations of his career at the Mexican Grand Prix, following an earlier spin.
The combination of reduced downforce at higher altitude and a dusty track at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez meant even the faster 2017 cars were struggling to maintain the grip on Friday, with the Briton simply one of the many to have an off-track moment.
In general, Mercedes look set for a bigger battle than recent races, with Red Bull emerging as strong challengers following Daniel Ricciardo’s table-topping time in the afternoon.
More frustratingly, Hamilton’s high-speed spin, midway through the Esses, came as the team were evaluating race tyre performance, but his later work would leave the 32-year-old much happier than perhaps he expected.
“It’s been a good day today,” he said. “It didn’t really start out great, particularly in the second session with the big spin on my first lap [at Turn 9], that really threw off the session and obviously made it a little bit tricky to get the run on the Supersoft.
“I put myself on the back foot but the single lap and then the long run on the Ultrasoft was probably one of the best I’ve ever done,” Lewis claimed, “I don’t think I’ve ever done 26 laps that consistent, apart from in the race may be. We got lots of information, the track was feeling better in the second session once the temperature came up.”
Quickly becoming one of the standout races of the year for fans and drivers alike, Hamilton would also thrilled by the Friday turnout in Mexico.
“It was great to see all the fans buzzing already today, in the paddock but also in the big grandstands,” he gleamed, “so overall a good day.”
Across the garage, Valtteri Bottas had a mixed day, topping the times in the morning with what was still the second-best lap all day, but the Finn was left disappointed after losing that initial sweet spot later on as he dropped to the bottom of the top three teams in sixth.
“First practice was good; I really enjoyed it. It is such a fun circuit to drive because it has quite a low grip, so it is definitely challenging,” he said.
“We made some set-up changes for FP2 which went in the wrong direction, so in the end of the session, we went back to the original set-up. For some reason I also struggled to get the tyres to work in the second session, that’s why it didn’t look as good as the first one. But I think it was a positive day overall, I’m looking forward to qualifying.”
