Hamilton: “It’s hard to know where we are”

Lewis Hamilton was a tone above in the first day of testing for the French GP at Paul-Ricard (Var). The pilot Mercedes completed the best lap of the day in 1'32''539, seven sixths ahead of his closest pursuers.

The four-time world champion was notably able to benefit from the latest evolution of the Power Unit provided by Mercedes which was initially to be ready for the Canadian GP.

“The new engine seems to be running well, but we won't know its true potential until tomorrow when everyone has the throttles turned to full throttle”, commented the Briton.

The Mercedes driver nevertheless had to deal with the discovery of the Castellet track where the markers are lacking unlike most of the other tracks.

" It is a beautiful place. It's always complicated coming to a new circuit, but you're constantly learning new things. We can take different trajectories and it's difficult to find our bearings on the circuit. Apart from the colored bands, it's hard to know where you are. For example, there are a few places on the straight where you try to find which corner to turn into. It’s very difficult to see,” he said.

Lewis Hamilton is one point away from Sebastian Vettel after the Canadian GP where his rival for the title returned to victory. His teammate Valtteri Bottas was less successful since he was only able to complete seven laps during the second practice session before having to dismount, victim of a water leak on his W09.