Lewis Hamilton says that he built a “solid platform” on the first day of practice for the United States Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver topped a wet/dry FP1 session and posted a new lap record in FP2 at the Circuit of the Americas. He set a 1:34.668 min on Ultra Soft tyre compound.
Hamilton has a strong record in the US. He won 4 of the 5 races held at the Circuit of the Americas. He also triumphed at Indianapolis back in 2007.
“It’s been an interesting day with lots of ups and downs in terms of how the track has moved around and how the car feels, but overall the car was feeling good, said Hamilton.
– There are lots of areas we can improve on, but generally it feels like a solid platform and a solid start.”
Hamilton’s team-mate, Valtteri Bottas, lost running in FP1 after flatspotting his tyres and wound up fourth fastest in FP2, six-tenths of a second adrift.
“In second practice we got a lot of running done, both short runs and long runs, he said. – In the end, we got everything from today that we needed.”
“Setup-wise, I think we have the usual work to do. Overall, it has been a pretty normal day. I enjoyed it, but I’m hoping there is more to come tomorrow.”
