Después de liderar las tablas de tiempos en ambas sesiones de práctica el jueves por la noche en el deslumbrante circuito de Las Vegas, Lewis Hamilton quedó desconcertado por el sorprendentemente fuerte ritmo de Mercedes.
The seven-time world champion beat the likes of Ferrari and McLaren to clock the fastest lap of the day as drivers up and down the grid struggled to extract performance around the low-grip track.
His team mate George Russell was similarly impressive, finishing in P2 and P3 across the two sessions to indicate that the Brackley outfit are the initial team to beat as they prepare for tomorrow’s qualifying hour.
The British duo have had a somewhat topsy turvy season, achieving race wins and podium finishes while simultaneously struggling to find any steady pace from track to track, occasionally even failing to make it into Q3.
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2024 Las Vegas GP FP2: Onboard with Lewis Hamilton for the fastest lap of second practice in Nevada
Asked about the positive start to the weekend in Las Vegas, Hamilton said: “I mean that’s the first time I’ve had a day like that this year so. The car was feeling generally good in FP1, in FP2 less so.
“Difficult to know exactly where we are or why we are where we are but really enjoying driving the track and I think we’ll see whether the car is the same tomorrow.
“The race pace is not that great so the work we have to do overnight is to figure out how to have better race pace without losing actual pace throughout the lap. But it was nice to get like consecutive sectors, and the car not throwing me off which was nice.”
He added that “I know it’s not my driving” that has been causing the team’s inconsistency issues, targeting another strong result in qualifying – with Lando Norris just 0.011s behind him in FP2 and Ferrari looking quick, the frontrunners are far from predictable.
Russell también se sorprendió por sus resultados satisfactorios en el primer día en el frío y polvoriento circuito de Las Vegas, describiéndolo como «angustiosamente sorprendente».
«Me encantaría decirte por qué, para ser honesto, nos estamos rascando un poco la cabeza sobre por qué fue tan positivo», explicó. «Por supuesto, solo fue práctica. Lewis hizo un gran trabajo allí afuera también, ha estado realmente concentrado desde la vuelta 1 de hoy, el coche simplemente ha estado funcionando.
«Pero estamos en un circuito urbano, está realmente sucio, va a ir mejorando cada vuelta. Como fuimos rápidos hoy, no significa necesariamente que lo vayamos a repetir mañana, probablemente la pista será tres segundos más rápida.»
