Lewis Hamilton says he is expecting to endure a “tough weekend” at the Hungaroring after a difficult opening day of running.
The seven-time World Champion ended the second practice session from the track in 11th place, 1.1 seconds down on pace-setter Charles Leclerc.
Mercedes used the FP2 outing to experiment with its car, amid a season that has seen it drop away from the front of the field.
Hamilton says that his day was further hindered after he picked up floor damage during one of his low fuel runs.
“I didn’t get to run at the end because I sustained some damage on my floor so I lost a lot of downforce, and after that it was pretty tricky for the long run pace,” he said.
“So it’s going to be a tough weekend, that’s for sure, but we’ll give it everything and see what we’ve got.
“Nothing’s changed on the car this week and I’m the same driver this week as I was last week, but it’s just for some reason this track it’s not working as well.
“But I think once we got it right the gap is about the same as last week – around a second.”
Despite Mercedes’ struggles, Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell says that it was nevertheless a constructive day for the Brackley-based squad.
“Definitely not our smoothest Friday so far, bit of a strange one because we think it’s going to be wet for quali and Sunday the conditions will be drastically different,” he said.
“So we were trying quite a few things with the car, using it as a bit of a test session, because to be honest you can try and optimise everything for today but there’s no use for that.
“It’s all for the rest of the weekend, so even though it was a very tough day it’s probably been a productive one.”
