© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
After United States Grand Prix Free Practice 2, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas agree Mercedes has “lost some ground”, but they still “have a good car”.
Mercedes topped United Grand Prix FP1, but in FP2 things were not as great, as Lewis Hamilton finished in P3 and Valtteri Bottas in P4.
Afterwards Lewis gave his thoughts on the sessions.
“Generally, yes it’s been a good day, but still work to do unfortunately,“ the Briton said.
“But I’m not unfortunate, it’s the way it is. P1 was a really good session, made some changes, and wasn’t happy in P2, and still, not such bad pace.
“But I think we lost some ground to everyone, or they gained ground, so we have some work to do tonight, as always.”
Lewis added that the recent resurfacing of the circuit caused the tyres to degrade more quickly than anticipated.
“I don’t think it’s the heat necessarily, I think it’s literally just the track surface is rougher than before. It’s a struggle to keep the temperature out of the tyres.
“It’s impossible pretty much so there’s more deg than we’ve experienced before.”
And this degradation has affected the car setup, according to Hamilton.
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“Definitely it’s difficult because you are trying to get a quali setup and also a setup that will work on the long runs.
“It’s not an easy car to set up in general but there were plenty of findings we should be able to navigate well.”
Valtteri Bottas also agreed Mercedes has made a step back in FP2.
“I think we have a good car,” the Finn said.
“Yes, I think today showed it’s pretty close at the front. Maybe relative to the competition we took a small step back in practice too.
“Like I said we focused more on the long runs, but all to play for – no doubt it’s going to be close tomorrow.”
Bottas will also have to serve a five-place grid penalty in the race on Sunday, due to Mercedes swapping his engine again.
“Again, unfortunately I have to take a penalty, but this time a bit smaller penalty than some other times – five places, you know I can still have a good race from there.
“Still a lot of work to do with the set-up. It’s not easy to drive at all, and it feels like in some places this track has lost quite a bit of grip, so, and the balance is a bit inconsistent,” concluded the Finn.
