Lewis Hamilton didn't even expect to make it into Q3 on Saturday after Mercedes' struggles in testing and the start of the BahrainGP weekend. F1
Mercedes lacked the performance to run at the front in Friday practice for the 2023 season opener in Bahrain, with Hamilton ending up over six tenths off the pace in eighth in the best of the two W14s.
“I thought it'd be worse than that, so positive,” he said. “We did some great work overnight, and the car felt much, much better this early afternoon, and then qualifying was okay. “Same story you have in previous years. Before last year we had better rear end. It’s something we can work on."Mercedes experimented with two rear wing set-ups over the weekend, with Hamilton focussing on the new lower drag version that was more tailored for the Sakhir track than the one used in testing last week.
Last year, strong race day pace was a feature of the W13 even at tracks where the team had struggled over one lap, but the W14’s degradation issues mean that Sunday form remains unclear.
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