‘Everywhere, every corner’ – Lewis Hamilton worried for Mercedes setup at French Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton believes that Mercedes have plenty of work to do ahead of the French Grand Prix.

After the second session for practice on Friday in the south of France, Hamilton had the fifth quickest time and teammate George Russell the fourth.

That put them behind the two frontrunning Ferraris as well as Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, ahead of Saturday’s third and final practice, before the afternoon’s qualifying session to decide the running order for Sunday’s race.

“It wasn’t the best of sessions,” said Hamilton to Sky Sports.

“I tried to get back up to speed as quick as possible.

“It is very hot so there are a lot of slow laps to get the temperatures of the tyres down but I think I did alright.”

Ask where the problems were on the car, he said: “Just everywhere, every corner. We will have to dig deep into the data but it just feels like we are lacking downforce.”

Hamilton had sat out the first session as Nyck De Vries picked up the driving role for Mercedes, and the seven-time champion explained the impact.

“I did make some changes going into the session which is kind of crazy because I hadn’t even driven the car,” he said.

“Nyck did a great job this morning, kept the car in one piece and was great out there.

“I am grateful for the work he did this morning and we had a lot of work to do, a lot of ground to cover.

“The car is not spectacular here, don’t know why but I am sure overnight we can make a bit of a step.”