© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
During the British Grand Prix FP2, many were puzzled when Carlos Sainz said Lewis Hamilton’s seemingly unremarkable long run time was “fast”. Afterwards, Lewis was asked to comment.
While Lewis Hamilton was doing race simulation laps on soft tyres in British Grand Prix Free Practice 2, Carlos Sainz was informed of Lewis’ time over the radio, and said: “That’s fast.”
The commentators, viewers and pundits found this somewhat puzzling, since Lewis’ time was seemingly unremarkable.
When asked after the session to comment on Sainz’s observation, Lewis said he did not feel his pace was anything special.
“It didn’t feel particularly great, if I’m really honest,” the Briton said.
“But it must have felt worse for others because they potentially weren’t as quick or I don’t know, had more deg.
“The last part of my run was starting to be more consistent, for whatever reason, it could be wind, it could be just balance or me getting used to the balance.
“And this track is really about trying to weigh the scales the whole way around and making compromises here and there.
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“There’s such a fine edge on the balance and such a big balance window, it’s back and forth.
“It’s never just like here and you can just drive it, it’s like one end to the other end of the spectrum, from braking, to turn in, to mid, to exit of every corner, so it’s a good battle.”
Lewis then explained he and George Russell went the other way with their setups.
“Me and George were just talking about it, he’s one way, he’s like over here with his set-up, I’m over here, and he was like ‘I’m thinking of coming to where you are but then your lap times are slower’.
“And I’m thinking ‘I was going to come to where you are’. But, I think as I said, it’s a balance. We’ll try and work on it tonight and Mick [Schumacher] will do some work in the sim tonight.
“So hopefully we’ll come up with something tomorrow,” Hamilton concluded.
