Will Mercedes keep up with Red Bull’s pace? They’re too fast, says Hamilton. What is it, he says?

We have had two opening practice sessions in Mexico, which again gave us a hint of what Red Bull and Mercedes’ form might look like in qualifying and the race. How did the free practice sessions actually go and what did Lewis Hamilton say on the subject?

According to Hamilton, Red Bull are simply too fast, with Mercedes currently unable to cut that deficit. Yet Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas completely dominated the opening practice session.

It was the Finnish driver who was on the top step of the results list. Hamilton was just 76 thousandths of a second behind Bottas at the end of FP1. Behind this pair were the two Red Bull drivers – Max Verstappen in third and Sergio Pérez in fourth.

However, in the second practice session, the championship leader worked in such a way that he gave the second Bottas almost half a second! Specifically, the Mercedes number two lost 4.2 tenths of a second to the FP2 winner.

Hamilton, however, made up an even bigger gap. His time was more than five tenths slower. The seven-time world champion clearly blames it on downforce issues.

“I had a good feeling about the car, we didn’t have any major problems. We gave it everything, but they are just faster than us at the moment. We don’t have any major concerns, but we’re lacking downforce, which is probably why we were half a second behind in second practice,” Hamilton explained in an interview with F1.

“I think from the beginning of the day the grip was worse. The track was too dusty and it was even harder to understand the car’s behaviour. It was difficult to set it up properly,” he realises.

“Today (meaning in the opening practice sessions – ed.) they definitely seem faster, at least in terms of the individual sections. They have a great pace and can work well with the tyre. We need to find some time to work on it and fight for pole position,” he concluded.

Qualifying for Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix is scheduled for today, Saturday 6 November. F1 has scheduled it to start at 9pm, so don’t miss it as we can expect a tough battle for pole position!

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