Mercedes still one second off the pace in Singapore, says Hamilton - Motorsport.com

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The tight Marina Bay circuit offered Mercedes the chance for one of its stronger weekends, with its W13 car appearing better in low and medium-speed corners.

But despite Hamilton leading the way in Friday evening's opening free practice, and teammate George Russell ending up third in the second session, the seven-time champion was downbeat about the German car manufacturer being in the fight for pole position.

Instead, having ended up fifth quickest in FP2, he reckoned that was a more realistic indicator of where the team was at, with the W13 suffering from extreme bouncing once again.

Reflecting on the opening day of action, Hamilton said: "It started off well, wasn't as great in the second session. So pretty much like every other weekend I would say.

"The car is as it is, and bouncing around like crazy. It doesn't feel like we're massively off here this weekend, but we're still probably a second down, I would say, something like that. We have just got to keep working on it."

Hamilton reckons that there was little Mercedes could do to iron out the bouncing – which he said had left him with a headache - as he did suggest his setup had not been as good as teammate Russell.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13

Photo by: Lionel Ng / Motorsport Images

"There's not really much we can do with the bouncing. It just is as it is," he said. "Set-up wise, definitely I think George was able to find a little more time. I think there's definitely on my side more time, and I just didn't really get a good lap.

"I think with the set-up I had a lot of locking, but we'll fix it tonight and come back and give it a better try tomorrow."