• Spanish Grand Prix - FP2

Mercedes off the pace of front runners - Hamilton

ESPN Staff
May 10, 2013 « New hard tyre won't alter racing - Vettel | Webber confident after practice »
Leiws Hamilton: "It looks like we don't have the same pace as the Red Bulls" © Sutton Images
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Lewis Hamilton thinks Mercedes has made an improvement with its car since Bahrain but admits he is off the pace of the front-runners at the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend.

At the opening races Mercedes had strong one-lap pace but struggled with tyre degradation in the races. Hamilton said he felt as though the team had made progress since the last race but thinks the set-up needs refining overnight.

"I'm sure we have [made progress] but it's difficult to quantify because I haven't driven the car for a while, but we've definitely feel like we've made some kind of improvement," he said. "It looks like we don't have the same pace as the Red Bulls and the Lotuses, but we'll go back to the drawing board and we'll keep working on the set-up overnight to see if we can make it a little better."

He said had he felt the difference of the updates on the Mercedes immediately.

"It's been an interesting day if not the most exciting day," Hamilton added. "In the first session it felt as though there was quite a lot of promise in the car and we felt really optimistic with the set-up. In FP2 we were a little bit less happy with the set-up. The team and the guys back at the factory have done a great job bringing upgrades here and I'm pretty happy with those. I felt it immediately but I don't know yet how much it will bring and over the weekend we'll see."

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