<\/p>\n
Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc appeared competitive during opening practice at the Baku City Circuit, finishing third and fourth after running on Pirelli\u2019s medium tyres.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Both drivers were about four-tenths of a second behind the fastest time, but Ferrari\u2019s deficit increased significantly during the second session.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Leclerc finished fourth, 1.1 seconds behind pace-setter George Russell, while Hamilton placed fifth after ending a further two-tenths back.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cFP1 felt really strong,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cI thought we were doing pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then FP2, for some reason, the others just took another step. We didn\u2019t really change anything on the car, but the others took a step somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hamilton identified tyre preparation and straight-line speed as the main areas requiring improvement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThese tyres are really, really difficult to get to work,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do an out lap and a preparation lap, and they still are not in the window or they still don\u2019t provide you with the grip.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hamilton said completing another lap could suddenly produce substantially more grip, making tyre preparation difficult to judge.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a really fine line and really difficult to get working,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cSome teams do it better than others, so we\u2019ve got to look into that.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The seven-time world champion also acknowledged that Ferrari lacked Mercedes\u2019 speed along Baku\u2019s long straights.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether or not we can close that deficit tomorrow is what I will try and work on tonight,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur said practice results remained difficult to interpret because traffic, slipstreams and incomplete laps affected the standings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to read,\u201d Vasseur said. \u201cThe McLaren was very quick, but they didn\u2019t finish the lap.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Vasseur said drivers would require an effective slipstream along the straights without encountering traffic through the middle section.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ferrari has recently slipped behind McLaren after emerging as Mercedes\u2019 closest challenger at stages of the season.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be focused on what we have to do and try to extract the best,\u201d Vasseur said.Hamilton urges Ferrari to find pace after difficult Baku practice<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari must find more speed before qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Mercedes pulled clear during Thursday\u2019s second practice session.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc appeared competitive during opening practice at the Baku City Circuit, finishing third and fourth after running on Pirelli\u2019s medium tyres.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Both drivers were about four-tenths of a second behind the fastest time, but Ferrari\u2019s deficit increased significantly during the second session.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Leclerc finished fourth, 1.1 seconds behind pace-setter George Russell, while Hamilton placed fifth after ending a further two-tenths back.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cFP1 felt really strong,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cI thought we were doing pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then FP2, for some reason, the others just took another step. We didn\u2019t really change anything on the car, but the others took a step somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hamilton identified tyre preparation and straight-line speed as the main areas requiring improvement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThese tyres are really, really difficult to get to work,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do an out lap and a preparation lap, and they still are not in the window or they still don\u2019t provide you with the grip.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hamilton said completing another lap could suddenly produce substantially more grip, making tyre preparation difficult to judge.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a really fine line and really difficult to get working,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cSome teams do it better than others, so we\u2019ve got to look into that.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The seven-time world champion also acknowledged that Ferrari lacked Mercedes\u2019 speed along Baku\u2019s long straights.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether or not we can close that deficit tomorrow is what I will try and work on tonight,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur said practice results remained difficult to interpret because traffic, slipstreams and incomplete laps affected the standings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to read,\u201d Vasseur said. \u201cThe McLaren was very quick, but they didn\u2019t finish the lap.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Vasseur said drivers would require an effective slipstream along the straights without encountering traffic through the middle section.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ferrari has recently slipped behind McLaren after emerging as Mercedes\u2019 closest challenger at stages of the season.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be focused on what we have to do and try to extract the best,\u201d Vasseur said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–F1\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13687,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-46420","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari must find more speed before qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Mercedes pulled clear during Thursday\u2019s second practice session.","published_date":"","news_description":"Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari must find more speed before qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Mercedes pulled clear during Thursday\u2019s second practice session.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46421,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46420\/revisions\/46421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=46420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}