Lewis Hamilton is satisfied the pace shown by Mercedes in Friday Practice means they will be in the fight with Ferrari and Red Bull for victory at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Unlike most races where the Brackley team turn up and expect to lead, today’s sessions at Marina Bay were as much about weighing up the potential for the remainder of the weekend as they were optimising the setup of the cars.
On that front, Mercedes do appear roughly in the ballpark albeit Hamilton was some six-tenths off the pace set by Daniel Ricciardo in third behind the Australian’s teammate Max Verstappen and with his main title rival Sebastian Vettel yet to set a representative single lap time.
Nevertheless, the Briton wasn’t too put off by the state of play after the first three hours of running.
“We had a clean day and got through our sessions without problems,” he said. “It was pretty hot out there, the conditions are pretty awesome to cope with, but the grip on the track is fairly good.
“We were obviously close with the field today and we have still got some improvements to make with the car. Red Bull seem like they’re very strong and they’re thereabouts with Ferrari, so we’ve got some work to do. But nothing is out of reach.”
The same sense of optimism wasn’t shared across the garage, as Valtteri Bottas, on his first weekend after being confirmed with Mercedes for 2018, admitted it was a struggle with a general lack of grip in the corners.
“We were making big setup changes between the first and the second session, but still didn’t quite find the right setting,” he revealed. “There is plenty of work to do from what we learned today, as I was struggling with the overall grip and the balance of the car.
“The car felt quite nervous, so it’s not so easy to trust the car when you push. That’s the main thing we need to work on so that I can build up my level of confidence.”
