And hammy goes for another whine fest...
Lewis Hamilton is desperate to avoid starting the Austrian Grand Prix from P6, so is going to try and create a “dry dance”.
With torrential rain forecast for Saturday there is a chance that qualifying could be scrapped and the results from FP2 could be used to form the grid for Sunday’s race.
Such a situation would see Red Bull’s Max Verstappen start from pole ahead of Mercedes’ race winner from Round 1 Valtteri Bottas.
But things wouldn’t look so good for six-time World Champion Hamilton who ended FP2 in P6.
And the Briton admits starting from that spot would “suck”, so he is going to give a “dry dance” a go in an bid to bring himself some luck.
“If we have to start [there], that would definitely suck if we didn’t get to qualify,” he is quoted by Racefans.net.
“[Second practice] wasn’t great. I’d be starting further back than I was even last week.
“So it would definitely make it challenging. I’ll try to do the ‘dry dance’, if there’s a dry dance.”
PS- Go fly a Kite like Ben Franklin and be sure to stand in a mud puddle for a good Ground (or “Earth” as Y’All Brits call it.) connection.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says they have a “problem” after describing Lewis Hamilton’s W11 as being “all over the place” in Austria.
Valtteri Bottas, whilst not enjoying the kind of performance he had during Round 1 at the Red Bull Ring, was able to end FP2 for the second race weekend at the circuit in P2, 0.043s down on Max Verstappen.
But Hamilton was the surprise of the session, finishing all the way down in P6, 0.6s adrift of Bottas.
It was a strange session with drivers trying to pump in flying laps due to the chance of FP2 forming the grid for Sunday if qualifying can’t happen due to the forecasted heavy rain.
And even though Wolff said Hamilton’s programme was neither the usual FP2 one or qualifying, he said there is a “problem” with the car because it was “all over the place”.
“We discussed it for a long time, but in the end we went into the session a bit half full,” Wolff told Austrian broadcaster ORF.
“Not using the full power, but also not cruising very slowly.
“It wasn’t full attack, but it wasn’t half attack either – we already added a little bit more.
“Let’s say, we drove on a performance level that we normally don’t drive on Friday.
“We are a bit in the dark, especially with Lewis’ time. There’s a problem with the car.
“At the moment we don’t know. The car is just all over the place in the slow and medium fast corners.
“But we have data channels for everything, and you have to take your time to look at that.”