Lewis Hamilton finds himself with fight on his hands in championship tilt in Mexico

Lewis Hamilton came to Mexico expecting a tough fight with Red Bull and Ferrari, and yesterday’s brace of practice sessions suggest that he’s going to get it, both in qualifying and the race.

“I’d not sat with the guys since the last race, but they’d mentioned it’s going to be a tougher weekend for us,” he said on Friday. “I don’t think last weekend we expected to be as strong as we were, so I don’t really know. It definitely is a tougher track, and the higher altitude will be harder on the compressor [turbocharger], though that shouldn’t be a problem. Plus the cars are faster.

“I expected this weekend to be more fun than it has been in the past, when it’s been low downforce. Now we’ve got big wings, bigger tyres, and it should be a lot more fun and easier to get the tyres in their operating window.”

It was interesting that he should highlight that, because having run second to his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the morning, he spun on his first flying lap of the afternoon and was fortunate to avoid contact with a wall.

Hamilton admitted that he had put himself on the back foot with that spin.

“It’s been a good day but it didn't really start out great, particularly in the second session with the big spin on my first lap. That really threw off the session and obviously made it a little bit tricky to get the run on the supersoft tyres.

“But the single lap and then the long run on the ultrasofts were probably among the best I've ever done. I don't think I've ever done 26 laps that consistent, apart from in the race maybe. We got lots of information, the track was feeling better in the second session once the temperature came up. So overall a good day.”

As he had expected, Ferrari look quick here in the rarer atmosphere, which places an even greater premium on the sort of downforce they can generate on this type of track.

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But Red Bull, too, look very quick.

In the afternoon session Daniel Ricciardo lapped in 1m 17.801s to pip Hamilton’s 1m 17.932s and his own team-mate Max Verstappen’s 1m 17.964s. Right behind them came the Ferraris of Hamilton’s title rival Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, on 1m 18.051s and 1m 18.142s respectively and Bottas, on 1m 18.299s.

That’s half a second difference. Okay, 0.498s, to be precise.

And with that sort of miniscule gap, precise is exactly what each of them will have to be when the chips are down in qualifying tomorrow afternoon.

The high altitude and the dark asphalt make it very difficult for all of the teams to keep their cars and their components sufficiently cool, a problem that is always exacerbated when you run behind somebody else. So that places a huge premium on qualifying well and being in front.

"Keeping the temperatures as low as possible will be tricky, but whoever succeeds will have the strongest pace," Vettel suggested.

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While Ricciardo and Hamilton had relatively smooth days, Verstappen and Vettel did not.

The Dutchman, under fire for his outburst against FIA stewards after losing his third place in last weekend’s US GP, did fewer laps than his rivals as he tested parts for Red Bull’s 2018 car, which then had to be reverted to 2017 specification.

"We tried out some development parts and then changed the set-up, so you lose a bit of momentum there already," he said. "And you cannot really set up the car because there are a lot of different parts.

"Going into the second session I was just chasing a bit with the car balance, trying to correct it, because you miss the morning, and it could have been a bit better.”

He then encountered an engine problem at the end of the afternoon, but said it was an old one and that changing it would not incur any grid penalties.

The German had a scare when his Ferrari’s fire extinguisher set itself off partway through the afternoon session when a screw loosened itself, giving him a wet cockpit and losing him time while the problem was rectified.

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"It was another Friday which didn't go 100 per cent right," he said, as he seeks to win at all costs on Sunday to keep his fading title hopes alive. "Initially the extinguishant was just burning and then it turned out to be very cold, which wasn't that pleasant for me.”

In general, he wasn’t happy with the way things went and said there is plenty of work to do overnight.

Ricciardo’s smile was broader than ever, as he beat Hamilton by 0.131s.

"In the long runs we can still find a bit more pace,” he admitted, “but on low fuel we are more or less there. We know Mercedes have more [power] on Saturday so I think we still have to find a few tenths if we want to stay ahead of them tomorrow, but it wasn’t a bad Friday. And I think it’s going to be pretty close between the top three teams now for the last few races.”

Hamilton insists he isn’t really thinking about the title, and that his mindset hasn’t changed even though he only needs fifth place to secure it, regardless of whether Vettel wins.

“I’m not really sure why. I’ve just been enjoying the moments from the last race and the great response from the team, and focusing on doing the same again.

“I want to win. I have no desire to come here and finish fifth and watch someone else stand on the podium. You are only as good as your last race, so the dream would be to be standing on the top step of the podium this weekend having won the championship. That’s the best feeling.”