Lewis Hamilton has admitted there are definitely improvements that can be made to the McLaren after the two opening practice sessions of the weekend ahead of the United States Grand Prix, where the McLaren duo enjoyed a relatively productive opening day. Both Hamilton and Button initially struggled with the green track in the morning.
The 2008 World Champion was the last driver to win a race on American soil back in 2007, around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield circuit. The Briton is understandably eager to once again become victorious in America, however Red Bull once again ended both sessions fastest around the new Circuit of the Americas. Despite Red Bull’s fearsome early pace, Lewis Hamilton is remaining confident ahead of qualifying and the race on Sunday, although he has admitted there are improvements that can be made on the car.
“This is a great drivers’ track – it’s very tough to pull together three perfect sectors. Turn One probably looks more exciting from the outside than it does from inside the cockpit – it’s certainly not easy, though. You can get oversteer, or lock up, and it’s tricky to get a perfect line through there. Overall, we’ve had a good day. Our main difficulty this morning was switching on the tyres in the cooler conditions. But we’ll make some changes overnight – there are definitely some improvements we can make.”
Both Lewis Hamilton and team-mate Jenson Button were mildly surprised with the lack of grip throughout the opening practice session in the morning. Although the drivers expected the track to be exceedingly tricky, the cooler temperatures only exacerbated the lack of grip yielded by the brand-new circuit. As more and more rubber is laid down throughout the weekend, grip around the track should improve just in time for race day on Sunday.
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