Azerbaijan GP : Post-Friday practice comments from Lewis and Mercedes

Mercedes were put under pressure by Red Bull in the 2021 season so far, The Milton Keynes team took control of both Constructor title and Drivers championship with a dominant display at Monaco.

Seven-time World Champions Mercedes coming to Azerbaijan GP after a disappointing performance on the streets of Monaco. But their Friday Practice struggles at Baku show us their lack of pace is not a one of bad weekend.

Both Lewis and Bottas failed to crack top-5 in both practice sessions, The first session of the day saw Lewis finish in P7 and Valtteri in P10. Lewis best time of 1:43.893 was good enough for just seventh in the final classification, +0.709s down on session leader Max Verstppen’s fast time. The Brit managed to clock 20 Laps.

Bottas finished morning session in tenth place after completing 20 laps. His fastest lap time was 1:44.891 , The fin was +1.707s down on Verstappen’s time.

The team’s struggles continued into the afternoon with Lewis in P11 and Valtteri finishing P16 in FP2, reflecting the single lap performance of the car. Lewis managed to complete 24 laps and registered fastest lap time of 1:43.156. The Brit’s time was +1.041s down on session leader Sergio Perez’s best efforts.

Valtteri Bottas managed to complete 23 laps while clocking fastest lap of 1:44.184 seconds. The Fin’s best effort is +2.069s down on Perez’s session leading time.

Though we shouldn’t read too much into Friday timings, Mercedes struggle at Monaco makes us to think worst for the champions for second consecutive race weekend. Mercedes along side Ferrari brought new engine to Baku for all it’s customers team, they may be cautious with their new engine in Practice sessions before turning the power up for Qualifying and Race. This could be one reason for their final classification on Friday.

Lewis Hamilton

“We had a clean run and worked through everything we needed to in both sessions – it just wasn’t very fast! The car felt better in P1 but in the second session, there just wasn’t more time in it – I was pushing hard but we were struggling for grip. We’re definitely a chunk of time down and I think everyone will be scratching their heads tonight, looking into the data to figure out what the issue is. The long runs were slightly better but there’s lots of work to do.”

Valtteri Bottas

“It was very tricky for us today, we are clearly lacking pace and it feels like we’re missing overall grip and sliding around. Monaco wasn’t easy but at least we were more or less there for qualifying. It’s been more of a challenging day than we anticipated and we need to figure out why. We were slightly better on the long runs but we’re still lacking pace. So overall not an easy day with lots of work to do – I think it’s going to be a long night.”

Andrew Shovlin

“Today was our worst Friday by some margin. Our biggest issue seemed to be the single lap; we’re a long way from our normal positions so clearly we need to find something very significant there. The long run picture was not as bad – a fair bit behind Red Bull but still in the mix. So, lots to work on overnight; we’re planning a comprehensive programme of analysis and simulator work to try and understand some of these issues but we clearly have an awful lot to find.”