Hamilton fears "it will be a challenge to get into Q3" at Montreal
Following a tough opening day at Montreal, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton fears that it will be a struggle to "get into Q3," but he hopes that Ferrari will be able to get the car in a better performance window for the rest of the weekend.
Ferrari endured a difficult opening day at the Canadian Grand Prix. Charles Leclerc looked very competitive in the opening minutes of Free Practice 1, but he locked up and ran across the grass to clip the inside barriers at Turn 3.
As a result of the contact with the walls, his SF-25 suffered heavy damage to its suspension. In addition, the crash also damaged the chassis of Leclerc's car, meaning that he was unable to take part in the second one-hour practice.
Hi team-mate Lewis Hamilton also had a difficult first day. Although the seven-time F1 champion had a fairly quiet day bar a few small moments, he lacked pace both in low-fuel and high-fuel configuration.
Nevertheless, Hamilton racked up a huge amount of laps, gathering the data for the Italian team, winding up in the top 10 after running the medium and soft tyre in the second session.
The British driver said that he will need to make “some changes to make” before the start of the third practice session to improve graining on his long runs while also picking up more outright pace in qualifying trim.
“I don’t know [what’s possible]. I think it will be a challenge to get into Q3 at this rate, but not impossible. Then I think trying to fight to get into the top five is going to be tough.”
“Not great, not particularly great. I love driving here and the crowd’s been amazing today, but the car is a lot different to what I’ve experienced here in the past.
“I think P1 was alright, then we made some changes. Honestly, I thought the car was quicker, and we just went slower, or they [our rivals] went quicker.”
"The car felt good to drive, but we’re currently lacking a bit of pace and saw some graining on the long runs. We’ll keep working overnight to get the car in a better performance window for tomorrow."
