Lewis Hamilton declares cause of latest 'big struggle'

Lewis Hamilton declared an inconsistent balance on the opening day of the Hungarian Grand Prix as the cause of his latest "big struggle". 

The eight-time Hungarian GP winner was sixth on the timesheets at the end of second practice, seven-tenths adrift of Lando Norris at the front of the field. 

Concerningly, Hamilton was also three-tenths slower than Charles Leclerc, who was McLaren's closest challenger at the Hungaroring.

Hamilton is the most successful F1 driver at the Hungarian venue by a staggering distance, but encountered issues at the track he has previously never experienced. 

"Today was not a good day. Big, big struggle with the balance of the car," said Hamilton after second practice. "Yeah, a lot different to the previous years I've been here."

The balance of the SF-25 has been a pressing issue for Hamilton across the majority of the campaign so far, with multiple methods of fixing the issue having been tested on Friday. 

Unfortunately, nothing worked to make the seven-time world champion comfortable, to the extent that his car behaved differently in each corner. 

Hamilton does wonder if the problem is linked to tyre temperature, something the Maranello-based outfit will look into overnight ahead of third practice.  

"We tried two different things," revealed Hamilton. "We tried to rectifying some of the balance problem we had in FP1. We changed the car for FP2 and it's just inconsistent. 

"Very, very inconsistent balance from corner to corner. So you can't say it's just understeer, you can't just say it's oversteer. It's just far from being on rails and very, very out of balance. 

"So, but I think it's probably something to do with maybe tyre temperatures or something. So, we're going to try and figure that out for tomorrow."