Lewis Hamilton 'praying' after painful Ferrari issue during Mexico practice

Lewis Hamilton has stated he is "praying" there is nothing dramatically amiss with his Ferrari power unit after he was forced to stop on track during the second free practice session in Mexico.

Hamilton had just 13 laps under his belt before he pulled to the side of the track following an instruction from his team.

It cut short his preparation for the weekend, with team-mate Charles Leclerc going on to set the fastest lap of the session, as he did in the first practice outing.

Hamilton highlighted that the command to stop the car took him by surprise, as he felt nothing strange behind the wheel.

"I was feeling really good in the car, it's just my luck," Hamilton said.

"I think we did a really good job in getting the set-up in a better place. Just really unfortunate.

"I think we're really competitive this weekend as a team. I didn't get to do the long runs so I have no idea.

"I know it's really hard to overtake here, as you saw with some people out there. They're still investigating to find out what was wrong, and just praying that everything's okay."

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Hamilton on the back foot ahead of qualifying

Hamilton managed more mileage in FP1 with 24 laps in the outing, however for part of the session he was running a test programme for Ferrari.

It has left the seven-time champion on the back foot heading into the remainder of the weekend.

"I missed a little bit of time in FP1 because we did the rake running," he said.

"Normally I would have one of the young drivers do FP1 at this track like most people did, but I opted to do it somewhere else.

"I've only really had one session because I missed at least half of that session. I don't think we need to make many changes to the set-up. I'd probably leave it much the same because we were very quick.

"I think I already had a loss of power earlier on in the lap and was still quick. I'll give it everything tomorrow and just try to do the best with whatever I have."