Hamilton: “It kind of sucks if you can’t qualify”

The weekends follow one another and are not really the same at home Mercedes. Ultra-dominant last week from the free practice sessions on Friday, the Flèches Noires this time suffered the law of a Racing Point in the morning and a Red Bull in EL2.

Si Valtteri Bottas, first leader of the 2020 Drivers ranking, fails at just 43 thousandths of the day's reference established by Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton experienced a second, more complicated driving session. The six-time champion is only in 6th place, almost 7 tenths behind the Dutchman. 

«  I don't know what happened, confided Hamilton on the evening of the opening day of the Styrian GP. Everything seemed normal behind the wheel but we were far from the best. We have our work cut out for us to try to understand the reasons for this decline. I felt good in Free Practice 1 as well as at the start of FP2, and then the pace started to drop. Our rivals are fast and Valtteri is in the mix. I hope we will be more frisky tomorrow ». 

Except that there could well be no action on the track on Saturday due to the violent thunderstorms forecast in the Spielberg region. In the event of outright cancellation of qualifying, it would then be the classification of EL2 which would establish the starting grid for Sunday. Suffice to say that the prospect hardly enchants Hamilton. 

 « It’s a bit scary if we can’t qualify because I would have to start from even further away than last week (5th on the grid due to a 3-place penalty, editor’s note), reacted the Mercedes driver. I'm going to try to do the dance not of rain but of dry weather. At least to make sure it doesn’t rain on Sunday! Or I hope we can at least ride in the wet because it's always fun to drive in these conditions ». 

His teammate Bottas confided that the first free session was aimed at trying to resolve the reliability concerns which marred the Mercedes' first weekend (electrical harness problems). The Finn added that he used an extra set of tires in the afternoon to set a competitive time. “ Without going so far as to attack like in qualifying "He said.