Lewis Hamilton heads into the Spanish Grand Prix already fearing the worst. Max Verstappen and Red Bull are already miles ahead of Mercedes and their other rivals and new upgrades at the Silver Arrows haven’t appeared to close the gap.
After a difficult day in practice on Friday, Hamilton admitted he fears he’ll struggle to make it to Q2 on Saturday. He said: “From the pace I had, it is a struggle for me to get into the top 10. But hopefully, we will do some changes overnight. It is very close between us and that middle… after P5 back to P10, it is very close between us all and it is impressive to see the improvements everyone seems to have made.
“If you look at Ocon, the Alpines are doing great. The Aston Martin was second just behind the Red Bull which is really impressive. It won’t be easy, that’s for sure.” However, his Mercedes team-mate, George Russell, is not as concerned and insisted the team often ‘struggle on Fridays and take big steps forward on Saturdays and Sundays’.
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen has been dealt a blow ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix after losing one of his key sponsors. One of the Dutchman’s main backers, supermarket chain Jumbo, has decided to end their relationship with him with new CEO, Ton van Veen, citing that the money used for the sponsorship deal would be better used for other projects.
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