Lewis Hamilton believes that Mercedes has made “a step forward” after topping Friday Practice for 2023 Canadian Grand Prix.
Local CCTV issues during a red flag to remove Pierre Gasly’s Alpine car meant that FP1 was curtailed after five minutes, with Hamilton nor George Russell amongst eight drivers not to set a lap time.
FIA stewards consequently extended FP2 to 90 minutes to make up for losing track time in FP1, which Hamilton welcomed on “a strange day” as he commented: “I’m glad that we got out there eventually though and it was good to have a 90-minute session. We haven’t had one of them in a long time!”
Russell echoed Hamilton’s sentiments as he too thought that it was “a strange day” but led to “a reasonably productive” FP2, although he warned that the timesheets can’t be fully trusted given that Mercedes waited until after everyone else to do their qualifying simulations.
Hamilton meanwhile noted that Circuit Gilles Villeneuve “is probably the bumpiest circuit that we’ve been on for a long time,” although he added that everyone else struggled with the various bumps as Russell added that the circuit was “incredibly bumpy.”
Hamilton nevertheless topped FP2 by 0.027 seconds from Russell and is confident of their chances as he explained: ” Overall, the car didn’t feel bad, but we’ve definitely got some work to do. We’ve just got to improve our ride control and balance through corner, and I think we will be alright.
“The car overall is a step forward from earlier in the season and I do think I’m feeling the improvements that we saw in Monaco and Barcelona.”
On the serious possibility of rain affecting FP3 and Qualifying although the risk of rain is low for the race, Hamilton quipped: “I love the rain so let’s try and have some fun tomorrow!”
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