Lewis Hamilton was left in awe of the performance of his 2017 Mercedes at Interlagos after completing the fastest ever lap of the fabled Brazilian Grand Prix venue on Friday.
The newly crowned four-time world champion would set the benchmark of a 1:09.202s in the morning which even he couldn’t surpass in the warmer temperatures of the afternoon as the Silver Arrows looked in imperious form in Sao Paulo.
Indeed, the pace across the board in all situations had Mercedes’ rivals worried they could be fighting for third on Sunday. Though Hamilton wasn’t quite as sure of his team’s advantage, that didn’t really matter as he enjoyed the thrill ride around Interlagos.
“It’s been a good day. It was pretty exciting to come to the track with the cars being so much faster this year. It’s physically more demanding than before which is great and it’s obviously quite warm out there today,” he said.
“We got through the long runs and the short runs; unfortunately, the tyres don’t really last very long, so you only get one or two laps on the short runs. Overall, we got through what we needed to do. We’re in a decent position but I think it could be quite close.”
Across the garage, Valtteri Bottas also showed his improvement in recent races by keeping up with his teammate, only a tenth off the fastest time in the morning.
With the battle for second in the Drivers’ title still very much alive with Sebastian Vettel, with the gap currently at 15 points in the Ferrari driver’s favour, the Finn was pleased with the foundation put down.
“I think it was a positive day for us,” he said. “Initially in practice one we did some aero tests, looking at some things we can improve for next year and we now have some data to analyse from that.
“Otherwise, I think both the short runs and the long runs in both sessions looked positive for us as a team, so we have a good starting point for the weekend.
“Still, we were a little bit struggling to get the set-up right for each corner of the circuit. However, I was really enjoying this track and I’m looking forward to the weekend.”
