Mercedes driver suffered a hydraulic issue during P2
Monday 19 September 2016 14:22, UK
Lewis Hamilton's title bid suffered a fresh setback as a hydraulic problem forced him to bring his second practice session in Singapore to a premature end.
The British driver was only seventh quickest on Friday when he was forced to pull into the pits, with Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg going fastest in P2.
Mercedes confirmed the problem with Hamilton's car was a "small hydraulic issue" which they were unable to fix before the end of the session.
In total, Hamilton missed out on around 45 minutes of track time. But despite the problem, he was in upbeat mood following the sessions on Friday.
"It doesn't look like anything serious," assured Hamilton. "The guys are working on it and it should be fine for tomorrow, which is the main thing.
"Our pace looked okay today. Definitely much better than last year so I'd say we're looking relatively strong."
Sky F1's Ted Kravitz, meanwhile, believed that it shouldn't have too much of an impact on his qualifying session on Saturday.
"One might say [FP2 is the] most important session in terms of preparing the car for the race," said Kravitz. "So [whether it] will have a knock on effect to Hamilton's race pace is one thing, but whether it will have an effect on his qualifying pace? Probably not. They can recover very nicely from here."
Hamilton leads the drivers' standings by just two points over Rosberg, as they head into a grand prix where Mercedes aren't expected to dominate to the extent they have so far in 2016, despite the German setting the fastest time.
The two drivers have won 13 of the 14 races between them this season, but neither managed to even finish on the podium in Singapore last year.
