Lewis Hamilton finished Practice Two in third and just +0.072s off Charles Leclerc's leading pace with team-mate George Russell two places behind him; watch Practice 3 at 11am on Saturday followed by Qualifying at 2pm, with build-up from 1pm all live on Sky Sports F1
Saturday 3 September 2022 09:47, UK
Lewis Hamilton said Mercedes had found a "sweet spot" on the opening day of practice at the Dutch Grand Prix, as Max Verstappen struggled on his home circuit.
In Belgium last week, Hamilton claimed Mercedes were "a long way off" after their opening practice sessions. After that, things worsened when it came to Qualifying; they were 1.8 seconds off the pace, prompting Toto Wolff to describe it as their worst qualifying session in 10 years.
Around the Circuit Zandvoort during Practice Two, Hamilton was only bettered by the two Ferraris and he ended the session 0.072s back from Charles Leclerc at the top of the timesheet.
"This is a lot better than my Sunday and a lot better than my Friday even last week," Hamilton said, as he referred to the crash he suffered in Belgium and last week's first practice sessions.
"It has been a decent start to the weekend, we have landed in a sweet spot with the car, just in that it is a much different track.
"It is a work in progress. We are not that far behind which is great to see and the car doesn't feel that bad, so we have just got to keep chipping away.
"There probably isn't a huge amount more performance wise, but we keep pushing."
With eight races left on the 2022 calendar, it has already been a season of emotional ups and downs for the Mercedes team and seven-time world champion Hamilton.
There have been positive steps, only for them to be flattened by issues at particular tracks. Hamilton has used his experience to ride the wave so far and is cautiously approaching Qualifying on Saturday.
"I think it is too early to say but today, we have been much closer than we have ever really been. I don't want to get my hopes up too much, I think we just continue what we have been doing," Hamilton said on Friday night.
"We still have problems with bouncing and some things like that so we have to work on that tonight. But if we make the improvement we usually make between Friday and Saturday that would be awesome.
"They have had a bit of a difficult day missing out a session and not getting their fast lap in at the end but they are generally a good six or seven tenths happily in the bag so it is going to be relatively easy most likely for them."
Hamilton's team-mate George Russell, who finished Friday's second practice session fifth on the timesheet, is also taking a measured approach when it comes to Saturday.
"It is going to be close tomorrow. I think McLaren are looking quick and even Aston Martin and we know Qualifying is our weak point," he said
"I think the race will come towards us and I think our long-run pace is looking strong but you have got to be starting in the right position.
"If we are starting on row three it is going to be difficult to battle for first or second.
"It was a little bit tricky out there because the timing screens weren't working so we couldn't really actually see where our long-run pace was at, so I am sure everyone is going to dive into it tonight and try and gather as much data as possible."
Championship leader Verstappen arrived at his home Grand Prix holding his biggest-ever title lead - 93 points over Leclerc - and having won last weekend from 14th on the grid.
Many ran out of superlatives to describe his performance in Belgium, but the Red Bull driver's Friday at the Circuit Zandvoort did not exactly continue that wave of positive momentum.
Verstappen's Practice One was halted after just 10 minutes due to a gearbox issue, and in Practice Two he remained off the pace.
"Since that car hit the track today, it's just not at home is it? It's not giving him the grip he needs and he's not able to extract the lap time out of it that he was able to in Spa," Sky F1's Paul di Resta noted during the session.
Verstappen was open after the session and said the team will be looking for significant improvements on Saturday.
"That wasn't great today but we will have the night to look into things and for sure we can do better than this," he said.
"To be honest, when driving it, I was not very surprised when I saw the lap time difference so there is a lot of things we can improve on.
"We have the whole night to look at things and P3 as well, so we will try to be more competitive."
