Mercedes was unable to maintain the pace of recent races in the first two free practices in Hungary, and Lewis Hamilton credited the downfall to the unpredictability of the W13
Mercedes did not have a standout start to the Hungarian GP weekend, which began on Friday (29) with the first two free practice sessions. Both drivers saw their time gap widen from TL1 to TL2 relative to the leaders, and Lewis Hamilton - seventh and 11th in the day's two sessions, respectively - acknowledged that the behavior of the W13 was not the same as in recent races - the German team arrives in Budapest with five consecutive podiums, four by Lewis and one by George Russell.
"The car represented a certain pain today. It's crazy how much it changes from track to track," the seven-time champion pointed out. "[We're] trying to figure out how to make the car work. At the moment it's a bit 'loose' and doesn't do what we want it to do. So it was a difficult day," Hamilton admitted.
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Despite the abrupt difference in behavior, which caused Hamilton to feel strange inside the cockpit - the Briton was surprised by the difference to the leaders, which at that moment wasThe #44 denied that any changes had been made to the Mercedes car, but showed confidence in finding the right track over the weekend.
"Nothing has changed in the car since last week, and I am the same driver I was last week," he said. "But for some reason, on this track it's not working as well. But once we get it right, the distance [to the others] will be the same as last week," he assessed.
Finally, Hamilton still suffered with the Hungaroring's zebras and saw the car's floorboard suffer a strong impact against the ground at turn 4, which damaged the W13's aerodynamics and compromised the Englishman's practice. Despite the hope for better days, Lewis admitted that he is looking forward to a difficult weekend in Hungary.
"I couldn't drive at the end because I had some damage. So I lost a lot of aerodynamics, and after that it became difficult at long-race pace," he explained. "It's going to be a tough weekend, but we're going to give it our all," he finished.