Listen to this article Hamilton ended down in ninth in Friday’s second practice session at Sakhir, 1.2 seconds off reigning world champion Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, with teammate George Russell in fourth some six tenths behind. But while Russell’s seemingly encouraging laptime came after a short run, the team is worried it is much further behind than that on high-fuel runs. The Brackley outfits trialled several solutions on both Hamilton’s and Russell’s car to cure handling and porpoising issues, which included Hamilton switching to a floor specification Russell used in FP1, but according to the seven-time world champion it still hasn’t come closer to finding solutions. When asked to draw parallels with last year’s season start, when Hamilton qualified four tenths off Verstappen after struggling during the pre-season, he says Mercedes’ problems are of a much larger scale this time around. “Compared to this year we’ve had much, much smaller problems in the past. We’re faced with much, much bigger problems this year,” Hamilton said on Friday night. “And everything we do to try …