Lewis Hamilton struggles with Ferrari setup in Japanese Grand Prix practice
Lewis Hamilton is searching for a setup breakthrough with his Ferrari after struggling for pace during Friday practice at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion finished sixth in both sessions at Suzuka, trailing eight-tenths behind the benchmark set by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.
He visibly battled with oversteer throughout the day, a handling issue that also heavily affected his team-mate Charles Leclerc.
During the longer runs towards the end of the second session, the British driver admitted over team radio that he had no confidence in the car.
Seeking a north star for qualifying
Despite the difficult running, the 41-year-old remains optimistic about finding a solution ahead of Saturday’s crucial qualifying session.
He noted similarities in the car’s handling to setup issues he experienced last year, providing a potential direction for overnight engineering changes.
“I feel I’ve got a bit of a north star, it’s just how we get there, so I’m going to try to figure that out,” Hamilton explained.
“It’s an awesome circuit but you need to be able to sit in the rear and be comfortable it will stay with you and today I had the snaps.”
The Ferrari driver confirmed the team will dive deeply into overnight simulator data to close the performance gap to their rivals.
McLaren surprise championship leaders
At the front of the field, McLaren emerged as genuine contenders for pole position to challenge the recently dominant Mercedes team.
Championship leader George Russell finished two-tenths behind Piastri in second practice.
The Mercedes driver, who currently holds a slender four-point championship lead over team-mate Kimi Antonelli, admitted his surprise at McLaren’s blistering pace.
“McLaren were pretty fast, a little bit of a surprise, so we still have some improvements we need to do tonight,” Russell said.
However, it was not a completely smooth day for the Woking-based squad.
Lando Norris was forced to miss 20 crucial minutes of the afternoon session following a costly hydraulics leak.
The British driver conceded the lost track time leaves him on the back foot heading into the remainder of the race weekend.
