Lewis Hamilton’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Practice Sessions Marred by Brake Issues
According to Sky Sports, Lewis Hamilton, the Ferrari driver, has described resolving brake problems on his car as a “lottery” after struggling with braking issues during the Practice Two session at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Hamilton’s day began promisingly, finishing within a tenth of the pacesetting McLarens in fifth place on the Practice One timesheet. However, the second session proved trickier, with Hamilton posting only the 11th-quickest lap. The seven-time champion expressed frustration with his car’s brakes several times over team radio.
“P1 was good,” Hamilton said, as reported by Sky Sports. “I was really, really happy with the car in P1 and it felt like we had made a step forward and I was feeling really positive. I literally changed two of the tiniest things that shouldn’t have had barely any effect at all, the smallest change we’ve probably done this year, and we then had some brake issues that then made a massive difference so that was then a fight with that.”
Hamilton’s brake issues are not related to him continuing to get used to the different brake material that Ferrari use compared to Mercedes, his previous team of 12 years. When asked if Friday’s problem could be resolved ahead of Saturday’s running, Hamilton replied “no”. “It’s a lottery! We will roll the dice. You put one on and it works and then you put another on and it doesn’t, and we’ll see. I hope tomorrow we figure something out, we’re working on it for sure,” he said, as quoted by Sky Sports.
Team-mate Charles Leclerc, who also reported problems with his car’s brakes during the day, had finished 0.4s slower than Hamilton in the opening session but was just under two tenths faster than the Briton on the way to the sixth-quickest time of Practice Two. Leclerc described his opening session in the car as having been “very tricky” due to various issues with the SF-25 after finishing 12th.
“FP2 we put everything together a bit more and it was feeling better on my side,” Leclerc said, according to Sky Sports. “But, still, we are lacking performance – and we know. Our weak point at the moment is the qualifying pace and we still need to work on that.”
Leclerc expressed optimism that Ferrari could find extra performance for qualifying to put them in a better starting position for Sunday’s race. “To be better than today, yes. To go and take pole, honestly, I don’t think we have got that in the car for now. But the race pace was strong, so that’s positive. But it’s also a track where overtaking is very difficult so we have got to focus on our qualifying pace. That’s where we are putting all our effort into and I’m hoping it will pay
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