BUDAPEST, Hungary — Lewis Hamilton has played down the chances of an exciting Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday, saying overheating tyres will limit overtaking opportunities.
Hamilton was fifth fastest in Friday practice at Hungary and it looks as though Ferrari and Red Bull have the edge over Mercedes this weekend. But after two exciting races in Great Britain and Germany in the last three weeks, Hamilton thinks the tyres will limit the chances of overtaking in a dry race on Sunday.
“Yeah it’s the temperature,” he said. “And it’s the type of track it is, it’s just corner after corner after corner, so there’s no time for the tyres to cool down. It’s almost like for this track, they need to make special tyres, probably for different circuits that are more severe on the tyres to enable you to keep pushing and remain close to other cars.
“You need a tyre that doesn’t overheat because at the moment, just on your own, it overheats. So I imagine in the race it’s going to be train race. There’s not going to be any cars overtaking in this race. That’s just how it is.”
Hamilton said he expected Ferrari and Red Bull to be quick on the Hungaroring’s tight circuit layout and believes the Ferraris will be better at managing their tyres in the race.
“For some reason, they’re very good at circuits like this. I guess they manage to keep their rears cooler than us, which is weird because if you look at some of the comments at the last race, they said Mercedes all of a sudden knows, this race they make their car make the tyre last, which is not the case.
“Practice is just the worst day. I don’t like practicing. I never have. This is a day you just have to go through. You kind of have to feel where the car is, but for some reason when you get to the race, the car is different. The car is worse than it was in the practice we did, or it’s a lot better. I have no idea what it’s going to be like, but hopefully it’s going to be better.”