They may have dominated both practice sessions at the Hungaroring, but both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have complained about problems that made them feel uncomfortable with the Mercedes W05 car on Friday.
Hamilton finished as the fastest driver in both FP1 and FP2, enjoying an advantage of roughly two-tenths of a second over Rosberg at the top of the timesheets. The Briton is looking to surpass Michael Schumacher’s tally of four victories in Hungary this weekend to become the most successful driver to have raced at the circuit, but he isn’t feeling 100% ready in his bid for a fifth victory.
“We struggled with poor grip on track today,” Hamilton explained. “I don’t know if that’s down to the tires or the track itself but it was quite bad throughout both sessions. It’s going to be important to get a good grid position tomorrow as it will be difficult to follow cars on this track and it’s always tough to overtake here.
“We have some work to do overnight to ensure we get the best setup for the weekend as we’re not fully comfortable with the car just yet, but our race pace looked okay. We’ll have to look through the data to really know where we stand.”
Rosberg finished second in both sessions to Hamilton, and he too was complaining of problems with the car during the second session. However, the fact that Mercedes remained ahead of the field gives him confidence heading into qualifying tomorrow.
“I was a bit surprised that we had the quickest car here today as I expected the Red Bulls to have gotten a bit closer again, so that’s a really encouraging start to the weekend,” Rosberg explained. “The car feels great and is super quick in the corners, so overall I’m quite happy.
“I definitely still need to find some time and there is some setup work for me and my engineers to do tonight if we want to achieve that. But I’m confident that we can make it happen. Qualifying will be crucial here, as overtaking is not easy at this great track. We’ll work hard as always during the evening and see what happens tomorrow.”
Red Bull and Ferrari do appear to be in better shape at the Hungaroring compared to other circuits, but they still lack the pace to mount a serious challenge at the front. They may not be where they want to be just yet, but Rosberg and Hamilton will be fighting it out at the front of the field once again on Sunday.
