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A annoyed Lewis Hamilton stated he was baffled and terrified by the treacherous nature of the monitor after winding up fourth for Mercedes in Friday’s opening apply for this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix. The 35-year-old Briton, who’s searching for to seal a record-equalling seventh world title in Sunday’s race, stated his day’s apply had been “a little bit of a disaster” on the Istanbul Park circuit. “This is such a fantastic circuit and I really don’t understand why they spend millions to do a re-surface of the track,” he stated. “I know it’s been sitting around for a long time, but maybe they could have just cleaned it instead of wasting all their money.”
The monitor has not been used for a Formula One race in 9 years for the reason that 2011 Turkish Grand Prix and in cool and damp situations it supplied little or no grip.
“Now, it is worse than Portimao (Portugal) with its new surface so, for us, the tyres aren’t working and you can see it’s like an ice-rink out there.
“You do not fairly get the enjoyment of the lap as you’d anticipate right here at Istanbul and I do not see that altering.”
He said every lap was a very challenging experience.
“It’s terrifying – the entire method spherical. There are moist patches throughout.
“So, you’re on slicks, accelerating and it goes so fast.”
He defined that because of the chilly his tyres weren’t working correctly and, on such a easy circuit, his issues have been exacerbated by oil seeping from the brand new asphalt.
The new floor was solely 10 days outdated and the floor of the circuit had been washed in a single day earlier than opening apply making it near-impossible to generate warmth within the tyres.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who topped the instances in each of Friday’s periods, agreed with the six-time champion’s evaluation.
“Well, it can’t get any worse basically,” he stated.
“We’re still miles off and it’s like driving on ice. Worse by far than it was at Portimao. At the end of the day, it’s the same for everyone so we just have to adapt to it.
“I hope it is not going to rain as it will likely be like correct driving on ice so possibly we should change to spikes or one thing on the tyres. That could be fairly attention-grabbing. So, let’s examine.”
Charles Leclerc, who was second for Ferrari, was another who slithered and spun, but said he felt satisfied with a competitive showing to finish up ahead of Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
“After some time, I actually loved it,” he said.
The Finn is the only driver who can stop Hamilton lifting his seventh title on Sunday and, drawing on his experience of winter rallies in Finland, he said he had enjoyed the change.
“At first, it was a great distance from what we’re usually used to in F1, however I loved it. I used to be taking part in round a bit and it was enjoyable.”
Bottas needs to out-score Hamilton by at least eight points to keep his title challenge alive.
Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate London-born Thai Alex Albon was fifth and admitted he was concerned about the slippery conditions ahead of Saturday’s qualifying.
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“It’s unhealthy,” he said. “I do not know what we’re going to do in qualifying. I do not know if everybody’s going to exit within the inexperienced gentle and all of us simply drive round on softs the entire session with a flood of gas in to do a race run.
“That’s what it feels like everybody is going to do.”
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