Lewis Hamilton spies 'unusual' trend after challenging Barcelona practice

Lewis Hamilton has pointed to an “unusual” trend that emerged on Friday in Barcelona after enduring a difficult day behind the wheel.

Hamilton missed the opening practice session of the weekend as he handed his car over to Dino Beganovic for one of the four mandatory rookie appearances teams must complete during the season.

The seven-time world champion returned to the cockpit for FP2 but was unable to match the pace of team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton noted that, with the exception of FP2 pace-setter Lando Norris, the drivers who missed the opening session appeared to be left playing catch-up compared to their team-mates later in the day.

“I only had FP2 so it was an unusual one in the sense that a majority of the drivers, maybe not Lando, those who missed the first session were quite far off their team-mates in the second session,” he said.

“The grip was the lowest, with this generation of car, that I’ve ever had.

“Because it’s so hot, the tyres only last one lap, so it’s tricky to get into FP2 and only have two laps, basically.

“I don’t really know what I’m going to do with the car, hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.”

Ferrari brought a substantial upgrade to Spain as it looks to close down the front-running teams and join the fight at the front of the grid.

However, Hamilton theorised that its efforts are still not enough to get in on the competitive action.

“I had zero feel of it,” he said. “Charles had two sessions and was four-tenths or something off the McLaren and Mercedes.

“Clearly, we’re quite a chunk off still, but hopefully tomorrow we can try close the gap.”