Lewis Hamilton has questioned the practice performances of Mercedes’ closest rivals after another difficult F1 Saturday.

The 39-year-old qualified for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in seventh, the slowest of the leading drivers who successfully reached Q3.

Qualifying has become a sticking point for the seven-time F1 drivers’ champion. This season, he has failed to match the one-lap pace of George Russell and has been open about the difficulties he faces putting a competitive lap together.

It is an issue which has been exacerbated by the stark contrast in the handling of his W15 between Friday practice sessions and qualifying on Saturdays.

In Baku, the 105-time grand prix winner went a step further, questioning whether the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull mask their true pace during FP1 and FP2.

“Every Saturday, it’s the same, so I’m not really surprised,” he explained to media including RacingNews365.

“FP1 and FP2, the car felt amazing and I was really on it, literally from lap one, [we could] compete down the front.

“Sometimes you wonder when you get to Saturday whether the others were heavier in FP1 and FP2.”

Hamilton ‘barely changed anything to the car’

Having been second and third fastest in the opening two sessions of the weekend respectively, Hamilton was only 10th-fastest in FP3.

Even more puzzling for the outgoing Mercedes driver was the lack of consistency, especially given he did not make significant changes his car between Friday and Saturday.

“As I said, it felt great yesterday, then as soon as we started today, I barely changed anything to the car because I didn’t want to mess anything up, and the tyres wouldn’t work,” the Briton added.

“All day they’ve not worked. The last lap, like the last sector, the tyres just started to work, but we missed it.”

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