Lewis Hamilton says he can feel the recent improvements made by Mercedes at the Canadian Grand Prix after leading teammate George Russell in FP2.
The first practice session was cancelled due to an issue with the CCTV infrastructure that meant race control didn’t have the required track visibility, but was rectified in time for an extended second session. Hamilton was fastest by just 0.027s from Russell as Mercedes secured a one-two before rain hit, and says the car’s recent developments are carrying through to Montreal.
“I can only base it off compared to last year and it’s massively better than last year,” Hamilton said. “The rear end is not necessarily, but overall the car is just a step forwards and I’m definitely feeling the improvements that we felt in Monaco and (in Spain) here.
“It’s probably the bumpiest circuit that we’ve been on in a long time. A bit of a strange day because obviously we got to miss the first session. I felt really bad for all the fans that are out there — we’ve had a great crowd already from yesterday, the city is pumping… I don’t know what happened, CCTV cameras or something like that, but I’m glad we got to go out.
“It was nice to have an hour and a half session, but we haven’t had an hour and a half for a long time so then I felt like the time was not used optimally. We’ll get back and have a look at how we can (do better), but I was just itching to go. I was like ‘Get me out, let’s maximize the time out there’.
“But I love driving this track; it’s mega. I loved it, from the moment you leave the pit line it’s like, ‘Yeah this is wicked.’ The car didn’t feel bad but I think we’ve definitely got some work to do.”