Hamilton and Bottas eighth and 10th in Practice Two; Both Silver Arrows 1.1 seconds behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel
Monday 29 May 2017 08:30, UK
Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff admitted Mercedes got their set-up wrong in Practice Two for the Monaco GP as the Silver Arrows saw their pace disappear on Thursday afternoon.
While Hamilton topped the timesheets in Practice One, the changes made in the break between sessions cost the world champions as the Briton was eighth in Practice Two, 1.1 seconds behind title rival and championship leader Sebastian Vettel.
The Ferrari driver's benchmark of 1:12.720 was the fastest ever recorded around Monaco's iconic street circuit and backed up pre-event predictions the Scuderia's car would be best suited to Monte Carlo's unique twists and turns.
Vettel fastest as Merc struggle
Hamilton had also been almost a second off the German during Practice Two when both teams ran the supersoft tyre and the three-time world champion is thankful Mercedes have an extra day to find a solution before Saturday's running.
"We were good in P1 but something went wrong in this session. We need to figure out why," Hamilton told Sky F1.
"The car was handling really good this morning but this afternoon, for whatever reasons, the tyres weren't working. That's something we have to study and figure out to fix for Saturday."
Valtteri Bottas had to settle for 10th in Practice Two, three hundredths of a second slower than team-mate Hamilton and just four hundredths of a second quicker than the McLaren-Hondas which have struggled for pace throughout 2017.
Team boss Wolff accepted Mercedes had made a mistake with their set-up changes but said they had to stick with it throughout the session in order to get track running.
"We took a wrong junction in setting up the car in a direction which we believed was good," Wolff said.
"We couldn't back out of it. We committed to the set-up as it takes longer than a session to change and we decided to push through and collect some data.
"There was a lack of grip and we went out of the window everywhere.
"We were pretty competitive in the morning and we just need to back track it. That's not a very difficult exercise but we lost a session where we could have progressed.
"We are lacking data so it's about sticking our heads together, staying calm and trying to work as well as possible on Saturday morning."
Analysis - Sky F1's Pat Symonds
"What surprises me is that they did it on both cars. If you are going in a new direction, generally you try it on one. I'm sure that is what happened. It's a little bit surprising.
"I think we're seeing this year the cars are more sensitive and more difficult to set up. There is not such a big sweetspot anymore. You can tumble down the times [if you find it].
"We saw it on day one in Australia when Ferrari were nowhere and then by Saturday they'd got it sorted out and were right there. Mercedes have a day to think about it and I'm sure they'll be there on Saturday."
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