Lewis Hamilton sends message to Ferrari after topping Azerbaijan GP practice

Lewis Hamilton thanked his Ferrari team for their “patience” and continued efforts after he set the pace on Friday at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

While Hamilton was keen to keep a lid on talk of just how significant that result was, Hamilton said the “progress” being made by he and Ferrari has really started to “come through”, as he headed a one-two result.

Lewis Hamilton hails Ferrari after Baku P1

Hamilton’s 1:41.293 was enough for him to end Friday practice at the Baku City Circuit on top. He was 0.074s up on team-mate Charles Leclerc, with Mercedes’ George Russell in third almost half a second off the ultimate pace.

That performance marks a continuation of the positive trend which Hamilton has been on since returning from the summer break. With a fresh breakthrough in Baku, Hamilton feels that progress is now being displayed clearly.

Put to him that it looked like a positive day out there, Hamilton replied: “It really has, yeah, thank the Lord.

“It started out, it wasn’t so positive, I would say. [F]P1 was a bit of a mess. And this is a circuit where you have to have mega confidence in the brakes. And I had some problems with the brakes.

“Also, every track I’m going to is the first time driving the Ferrari at that circuit, so acclimatising to that is not easy.

“Then we made some changes going into P2 and the brakes finally were working perfect and sort of, I was able to really make some quick big advantage, in terms of gaining on the brakes. So really happy to see the progress.

“And it just goes to show like, the direction we’ve been going as a team. Really, really grateful for everyone’s patience and everyone pushing so hard, because we really started to see the progress come through.”

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Asked if this was a ‘big day’ in the Hamilton and Ferrari partnership – one which has faced criticism over a lack of results – Hamilton was keen to keep expectations in check.

He would return to sending a clear message of gratitude towards Ferrari, and the fans.

“It’s just practice day,” he cautioned, “so I would say let’s not go too far.

“I just want to say that I really am grateful for everyone continuing to push. The support I’ve been getting back from everyone at the factory, everyone here, their patience, their support every weekend, just lifting me up, the guys in the garage, all of our marketing team, they’re really making a big difference.

“And then the tifosi, like we’ve been beaming from the energy from the tifosi in the last race. So, hoping to take that energy that they gave us all the way through the rest of the season.”

Hamilton goes into the Azerbaijan GP 46 points behind Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship.

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