Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2021

Red Bull “definitely too quick” for Mercedes in Mexico, says Hamilton

2021 Mexico City Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton said Red Bull are “definitely too quick for us” after the first day of practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen set the pace in the second practice session for the race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. He lapped over four-tenths of a second faster than the quickest Mercedes, driven by Valtteri Bottas, while Hamilton was half a second adrift.

Hamilton said the balance of his car felt good, but the lap time deficit to their main rivals was clear to see.

“The car’s generally been feeling okay,” said Hamilton. “I’ve not really had any major issues.

“I think we were giving it absolutely everything we’ve got. It was just they’re just quicker than us at the moment.

“I’ve got no real concerns, just chipping away at our set-up and trying to improve it. We’re lacking downforce which is probably why they had a half-a-second difference to us.”

Bottas agreed Red Bull “definitely seem quicker today, at least on the single lap.”

“They had really strong pace on the soft tyre. So we need to find a bit of time if we want to fight for the pole,” he said.

However he was satisfied with the progress Mercedes made as the track conditions improved rapidly on a circuit which was very dusty when practice began.

“Starting the day it was quite tricky with the low grip, it was a really dusty track and that’s why it was quite difficult to get a proper read on how the car actually is. But I felt it was not far off how it should be and we could really fine-tune for practice two and actually it didn’t feel too bad.

“But there’s still definitely time we need to find because Red Bull seems a bit quick.”

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2021 Mexico City Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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19 comments on “Red Bull “definitely too quick” for Mercedes in Mexico, says Hamilton”

  1. The

    Mur des Lamentations

    is coming from sir Lewis as predicted. I just wonder why, as a matter of coherence, he didn’t show any compassion for Max and Red Bull who were left eating dust by Mercedes in Turkey, as well as being convincingly outperformed by them on pure pace at Imola and Sochi, just to list recent events this season. Of course one of the reasons is because he failed to captalise on those races.

    1. Maximum haul of points only in Sochi with a kind of inherited win after another blunder yet in qualifying. Too many times this season not the form of a Champion.

    2. You want him to show compassion for Max @rodewulf ? I’m sure it would be reciprocal, don’t you think?

      So far Max definitely deserves the championship ahead of ‘Sir’ Lewis as you call him, but we’re getting to the crunch part of the season so let’s see if he can hold up. I presume he will.

      1. @john-h

        I’m sure it would be reciprocal, don’t you think?

        Yes, that’s how it should be, both in their success and in their troubles. In this case it was specifically this off-pace machinery thing, as he hadn’t seen Max doing this sort of drama in the weekends when Red Bull were clearly lagging behind.

        So far Max definitely deserves the championship ahead of ‘Sir’ Lewis as you call him, but we’re getting to the crunch part of the season so let’s see if he can hold up. I presume he will.

        I agree, and still believe this title fight will go down to the last round, unless Lewis receive some payback for his big luck earlier on this season.

        1. Ah yes, Lewis and his luck @rodewulf.
          You had to get that in didn’t you lol.
          I dunno, it’s really sad.

  2. Max is too quick for you Lewis, both Mercedes were still ahead of Perez.

    Lewis is no longer easily winning because he no longer has a massive pace advantage. Since 2014 Lewis only found himself really challenged twice and so far he buckled under pressure both times.

    Lewis played dirty many times before and he will do so again just to stay in the race. In FP1 he already practiced cutting the 2nd corner to use it in the race as he did a few years ago.

    Can only hope Lewis and dirty Toto are finally caught cheating.

    1. Does this hatred help in any way?

    2. Most Hamilton fans respect Max. Doesn’t seem reciprocal.

  3. Race is on sunday.
    And everyone has to pass by the first corner at the start without … let’s say … bowling ? 😁

    1. There’s also the possibility of a yellow flag on Saturday to spoil Red Bull’s party … we’ve seen that before (although you suspect Max would be more circumspect with a championship on the line).

  4. Lewis never wastes an opportunity to play the underdog.

    Fact remains : on avg Merc has been (at least ) on par with RB this season.

  5. Red Bull red (soft) and yellow (medium) fast, white (hard) mercedes looked very good

    1. Which is pretty much the story of the season.

  6. ‘My tires are gone, man’ Yep, sure.

  7. If/when (will be a when) Max and Rbr win this weekend, I’ll say they will officially have a finger on the WDC.

    Although this is the best I’ve seen the Mercs car perform at this track.

  8. Mercs won here in 15,16 and 19. So 3 out of 5 times. Still they act as if they are suddenly at 2020 Ferrari levels here.

  9. Of course Lewis

  10. In Austin Mercedes was almost a second ahead in fp1. ‘Championship over’ commenters (then and now) should not come to conclusions that quick

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