Solid day for Hamilton, but Bottas has 'work to do'

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Friday's free practice sessions for the Singapore Grand Prix proved a "mixed bag" for Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton had a decent day on the Marina Bay Street Circuit. He ended up third fastest behind the on-form Red Bull pairing. Meanwhile Bottas was fourth on the timesheets - but unhappy at the half second gap to his team mate.

"We had a clean day and got through our sessions without problems," reported Hamilton. "It was pretty hot out there. The conditions are pretty awesome to cope with, but the grip on the track is fairly good.

"We were obviously close with the field today and we have still got some improvements to make with the car," he added.

"Red Bull seem like they're very strong and they're thereabouts with Ferrari, so we've got some work to do. But nothing is out of reach."

In contrast, Bottas was more frustrated with how the two 90-minute sessions had gone today.

"This was a difficult day for us," he said. "I think we are missing some pace.

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"We were making big setup changes between the first and the second session, but still didn't quite find the right setting.

"There is plenty of work to do from what we learned today," he continued.

"I was struggling with the overall grip and the balance of the car. The car felt quite nervous. It's not so easy to trust the car when you push.

"That's the main thing we need to work on, so that I can build up my level of confidence."

"In terms of the programme, it was a clean and straightforward day," reported Mercerdes' technical director James Allison. "But performance-wise a bit more of a mixed bag.

"Lewis is showing some encouraging pace on the soft tyre," he explained. "But we've got a bit more to do on the qualifying tyre.

"Valtteri on the other hand had a tough day," he noted. "We've got some work to do with him to get him up to Lewis' pace.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.