Hamilton: “Ferrari is probably hiding its game”

Mercedes dominated the first two driving sessions in Catalonia, Hamilton and his teammate Valtteri Bottas sharing the honors. At the same time, Ferrari, who remains on three consecutive pole positions, had to settle for the places of honor on the Friday timesheets.

Certainly 3rd in the morning, Sebastian Vettel However, he was almost a second behind Bottas. The gap with the leading Mercedes fell to 3 tenths in the afternoon but the German four-time world champion saw both Red Bull de Daniel Ricciardo et Max Verstappen slip in front of him.

« It's still very tight, Judge Hamilton. I don't know how to interpret Ferrari's times, they are probably hiding their game and I expect them to show more performance on Saturday. The Red Bulls are very close to our pace so it will again be an intense three-way fight ».

Talking about his feelings behind the wheel, the Briton admits that he is not as comfortable as his direct competitors with the Pirelli Super-Soft tire. Sensations shared by his Finnish teammate, who also finished with the best cumulative time of the day since his reference time from Free Practice 1 was not beaten.  

« I think we have a good base to work from for Saturday, Bottas said. For us, the harder the compound, the better in terms of performance. We have not recorded any real gain in terms of grip with the Super-Tendre so this will be one of the points to study. It's a good start to the weekend but we know that the situation can change from one day to the next. Ferrari will be in the game in qualifying and the Red Bulls looked fast today ».