Lewis Hamilton has conceded Mercedes has work to do if it is to stop Ferrari from securing pole position on home turf at Monza.
Ferrari ended Friday practice in Italy as the team to beat going into qualifying after Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets in FP2 ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen. Hamilton could only manage third fastest, trailing his title rival by 0.287s.
Vettel ran out as the comfortable winner at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix and Hamilton believes the pace deficit to Ferrari is the same as it was at Spa.
« I think it’s the same, exactly the same, » Hamilton said. » We are lacking a tenth and a half, something like almost two-tenths I think it is on both short runs but I think the short runs maybe it’s slightly less but then on the long runs it seems to be more. We are all working as hard as we can. Of course when you going into the session and you’re hopeful you’re doing good laps and you realise Ferrari are doing better laps it’s difficult for us all, but that’s the fight and that’s what we are working towards.
« Everyone back in the factory is working incredibly hard. We’ve got a meeting now to try and churn the numbers to see if we can squeeze any more juice out of this car. »
In terms of pinpointing where Mercedes is losing out to Ferrari, Hamilton revealed that it was losing time in the middle sector but he is confident that changes to the car setup can bring Mercedes closer to the pace of Ferrari.
« No it’s a combination of everything, » Hamilton said when asked where Mercedes was losing time relative to Ferrari. « There are areas, for example, it was the slow, slow corners we were losing out and for here, for example, maybe the middle sector — the two Lesmos — we seem to be losing out a little there but then that’s just setup, I am sure we can fix that and then there’s a little bit on straights.
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