The seven-time world champion had been right behind Mercedes team-mate George Russell as they topped the timesheets in FP1, but his form fell away in the evening practice session as Hamilton ended up seventh – nearly one second adrift of pacesetter Max Verstappen.
Reflecting on the struggles to find a good balance with the car, Hamilton said that the contrast of performance over the day had been hard to take.
“We’re not particularly quick and it’s a struggle out there,” he said. “We’re just trying lots of different things.
“P1 looked quite good, but then to come into P2, and the true pace comes out, it’s just a kick in the gut. It’s a little bit difficult to take sometimes, but we’ll just keep on working on it, and we’ll regroup to try and see if we can make some set-up changes to get the car in the sweet spot.”
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14
Photo by: Jake Grant …