Lewis Hamilton is hopeful Mercedes are “in the mix” at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as he admitted the start of his final weekend for the Silver Arrows felt “very surreal”.
Hamilton finished fifth-fastest in Friday’s representative second practice session under the Yas Marina floodlights, fractionally behind Carlos Sainz in the lead Ferrari although six tenths away from pacesetter Lando Norris amid McLaren’s commanding start to the event.
The seven-time champion is racing as a Mercedes driver for the final time after 12 years ahead of his winter switch to Ferrari as the 2024 season draws to a close and, having experienced some troubled race weekends recently, was pleased to get his swansong off to a positive start.
“It felt better today. It’s not been such a bad day,” said an encouraged Hamilton.
“Very surreal and I’ve just tried to be as present as I can be today and just be enjoying every moment from arriving to seeing the engineers and just really like taking moments and capturing them as much as I can.
“Then to getting ready and getting in the car… and I’ve really enjoyed the day. I’ve really enjoyed driving the car today, working with the guys in the garage and the engineers.
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Highlights from Friday’s practice sessions at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“We’ve got some work to do. The McLaren is still so fast, as is Ferrari. We’re in the mix, kind of, but we’ve got to find some time.
“It’s never that easy to determine, but I think our long run pace didn’t look too bad today, so that’s I would say the big positive from today – I was a lot closer to the McLarens. On a single lap I think we’ve got some work to do.”
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Lewis Hamilton admitted he underestimated how difficult his final Mercedes year would be and that he hasn’t handled his emotions very well, ahead of his final race for the team at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
In a frank admission on Thursday, the Briton admitted that he had not always controlled his emotions in the best way during his final season at the Silver Arrows having announced his shock Ferrari switch before the campaign even started.
Asked how he was managing his feelings on his final weekend at Mercedes, Hamilton said: “There’s no trick to it, I’m trying to keep my emotions under control as much as I can.
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Catch a Sky Sports special two-part feature this weekend celebrating 7-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton’s incredible journey with Mercedes!
“I said [on Thursday], I’ve not been great at it this year, I’ve definitely been very up and down – that’s human emotion, that’s normal – but I’m just really trying to channel it into the car, into the squad, the team. I’ve so much love for the team and I’ve been wanting to do well for them for ages, but one last go at it.
“I won’t change too much in the car tonight and hopefully [in qualifying] we’ll be there or thereabouts.”
Russell: McLaren in a league of their own so far
Team-mate George Russell has certainly been ending the year in more consistently strong form than Hamilton, but on Friday finished three tenths of a second behind his team-mate in 13th place on the Practice Two timesheet.
Russell – whose weekend started with a furious reaction to Max Verstappen’s critical comments about him in Qatar – said he had been running experimental set-ups on the W15 on Friday.
“Today we struggled a bit but it’s only Friday,” he said.
“We’re trying a lot of things in preparation for next year. Obviously, this is our last opportunity and we wanted to go, let’s say, a little bit more radical with some of the set-up options to see if there is anything more we can learn.
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George Russell hit back at ‘bully’ Max Verstappen after their Qatar penalty fallout, saying someone needs to stand up to the Red Bull driver.
“So hoping [Saturday] will be a bit more of a normal day and go from there.”
While praising his team-mate’s efforts, Russell was more pessimistic about where the team ended up on the Friday timesheet relative to the leading two teams.
“To be honest, Lewis did some great laps out there and I think still, as a team, we’re a long way off McLaren and Ferrari,” he said.
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Craig Slater took a closer look at how the Qatar penalty fallout escalated between George Russell and Max Verstappen after George labelled the Red Bull driver as a ‘bully’.
“McLaren especially seem to be in a league of their own at the moment.
“As I said, Lewis did a great job but we’re still four tenths behind the McLarens so that’s bigger than we usually expect.
“So I expect Ferrari to probably get back in the mix, Max probably to get back in the mix, but I hope we can make some improvements for tomorrow.”
Sky Sports F1’s live Abu Dhabi GP schedule
Saturday December 7
8.10am: F1 Academy Race One
10.15am: Abu Dhabi GP Practice Three (session starts at 10.30am)
12.10pm: F2 Sprint Race
1.15pm: Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying build-up
2pm: ABU DHABI GP QUALIFYING*
4pm: F1 Academy: Race Two
5pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
Sunday December 8
7.10am: F1 Academy Race Three
9.20am: F2 Feature Race
11.30am: Grand Prix Sunday: Abu Dhabi GP build-up
1pm: The ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX
3pm: Chequered Flag: Abu Dhabi GP reaction
4pm: Ted’s Notebook
*also live on Sky Sports Main Event
Watch the final race of the 2024 Formula 1 season – the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – live on Sky Sports F1, with Sunday’s race at 1pm. Get Sky Sports F1 or stream with NOW
