Lewis Hamilton was in an upbeat mood after practice at Hockenheim, despite a heavy crash in the wet morning session.
The damage meant that Hamilton did not get out until the last 10 minutes of the dry afternoon session, but still managed to get seventh place and gain at least some knowledge about the prime tyres and the track.
“It’s been quite an interesting day for me!,” said Hamilton. “The guys have done an incredible job because I damaged the car quite heavily this morning. I was a little bit upset with myself, because when you see the guys work so hard during the week putting the car together then you get there and do only a few laps and you total the car.
“It was very, very slippery. What was actually a relief was when I came back and everyone explained to me how it occurred. I hit the limiter and upshifted and I spun the wheels. Obviously a moment which I tried to correct and didn’t correct it well enough or whatever, and it put me off onto the grass. And I was just a passenger.
“It took all four corners pretty much off. It was a huge, huge amount of work for the guys, and they are just phenomenal. They did such an awesome job. I got back out and I only 10 laps to do. Seven tenths off, and I only ran the prime tyre.
“Generally it felt good to get back in, and it’s good to get back out and overcome the difficulty you had in the morning. We missed the rain which was good, at least I’ve got something to go and work on now. I have a good feel for where the car is and hopefully can make some good set-up changes overnight.”
Hamilton said he’s not worried about not having any experience of the supersoft option tyre.
“It’s not really a setback. I had the choice of going out on the options but I because I hadn’t done any laps this weekend I thought it was only sensible for me to go out on the prime.”
He says that the team is likely to stick with the blown diffuser floor, which was tried by both drivers today.
“I’m very, very fortunate. I damaged the floor they worked so hard to get here this weekend, but we have a spare one. We’re going to continue to use it, and hopefully get some good information on it. Today we got some good information. From that we’ll just continue to work with it and try to improve it.
“It’s definitely not perfect, it’s not something you just put on and drive with the original balance of the car you had before, you have to change the balance a little bit. And also you driving has to change a little bit, because when you get on the power you should have a lot more downforce. It’s how you use it, I guess. We’ve got to work on that.
“For me it feels very similar to what it did at Silverstone. The corner entries maybe seem to be a little better, but it’s a completely different track, much slower speed. But it’s not bad. Hopefully if we keep working in it will be even better later.
Adam Cooper F1 