‘Not fun’ – Hamilton frustrated by tough Barcelona Friday as he vows Ferrari will ‘keep trying’ to solve issues

Lewis Hamilton described Friday practice at the Spanish Grand Prix as “not fun” after failing to feature in the top 10 for FP2 when the chequered flag fell in Barcelona.

The Ferrari driver has had an up and down season so far and that continued on Friday in Spain as his top-three pace from first practice disappeared in the second session and he slumped to P11 – 0.773s off the pace.

READ MORE: FP2: Piastri tops the timesheets ahead of Russell and Verstappen during second practice in Spain

Offering his thoughts on his first day of running, Hamilton said: “Not fun. It’s a beautiful place, the weather has been amazing, but no, not a good day.”

Asked how he can use his experience to motivate the team through a difficult spell, Hamilton added: “I wouldn’t say that I’m motivating the team at the moment. You just keep your head down and keep working away. You just don’t give up. You keep going, you keep pushing, you keep trying to focus on solving the issues, which we’ll try to do.

“But you arrive on Friday and are hoping for a good day, and it doesn’t go well. Then you have a weekend in Monaco, where suddenly the car feels great.

“Honestly, I thought the car was going to be good today. It wasn’t too bad in P1, but P2 was much worse. Naturally, that’s frustrating for everyone, but we had some problems, which meant we were losing some downforce.

READ MORE: ‘Our competitors look quick’ – Piastri predicts ‘tight battle’ during Qualifying in Barcelona

“Hopefully, with that fixed for tomorrow, we’ll be in a better place.”

Despite Hamilton’s struggles, team mate Charles Leclerc put a more positive spin on the day, after finishing fifth fastest and 0.5s off Oscar Piastri’s table-topping effort from FP2.

“Honestly, it was a bit more positive than what we expected coming here, so that is good,” he said. “There is more performance in the car, which I hope we will unlock tomorrow, come Qualifying.”

Pressed on whether Ferrari has a clear idea of where it needs to focus ahead of final practice on Saturday, Leclerc added: “Yeah, there is still quite a bit of work to be done, but I don’t think that we are too far out. We’ll focus on a few areas tonight, and let’s see tomorrow.”

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