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    03 June 2023

    Lewis Hamilton Risks Missing Spanish Grand Prix Q3 – Team Needs More Speed

    Lewis Hamilton struggles to find pace in Barcelona

    The mystery around Lewis Hamilton’s performance continued as he struggled to keep up with the rest of the grid during practice at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Despite Mercedes’ new upgrades, which were introduced in Monaco, Hamilton finished 11th fastest overall and more than six-tenths behind Max Verstappen.

    Difficult Friday for Mercedes

    Hamilton failed to make it into the top ten and voiced his concerns about his chances of qualifying for Q3 on Saturday. He admitted that they have a lot of work to do overnight if they are going to improve their pace.

    “I think from the pace that I have today, it’s a struggle for me currently to get into top ten,” he said while talking sport news reporters. “It’s impressive to see the improvements that everyone seems to have made all around us.”

    Despite George Russell being less than two-tenths quicker in eighth place, Hamilton acknowledged Red Bull is looking extremely strong this season.

    Pace ramp-up usually happens over weekend

    Russell remained optimistic about Mercedes’ prospects despite not being specialists on Fridays. He noted that they often take a step forward on Saturdays and Sundays before improving their pace later in the race:

    “We know that we’re not Friday specialists,” he said while reflecting sports news updates.”We just need to learn what we can from the info we’ve got and try moving forward tomorrow.

    However, Russell agreed with Hamilton when it came down competitors like Alpine who looked very competitive during low fuel runs:

    “I think between us (Mercedes), Ferrari and Alpine; it’s probably going be tight,” Russell pointed out.

    “I don’t expect us to be having an incredible day tomorrow. But I certainly expect us to be having a better Sunday than Saturday.”

    Long runs look promising

    Hamilton and Russell agreed that Mercedes struggled with its single-lap pace more than its long-run form. Despite Hamilton admitting he had trouble finding speed on one lap, he felt confident they would recover:

    “The long-run pace didn’t look terrible,” said Hamilton.

    “We have just got to work on trying to figure out how we can extract more in a single lap.”

    The discontinuity in Hamilton’s performance remains puzzling heading into the remainder of the weekend.

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