Montmelo - Ferrari appear less satisfactory in the first practice free day of the Spanish GP. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton suspects Ferrari deliberately appear underperform.
In the first two free practice titles being held, Mercedes has always been a ruler. In the first session, Valtteri Bottas scored the best lap time of 1 minute 18.148 seconds or 0.95 seconds from Sebastian Vettel in third place even more than 1.3 seconds from Kimi Raikkonen in fifth.
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In the second session, Hamilton's turn fastest after posting 1 minute 18.259 seconds. The England rider left Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel fourth in the range 0.326 seconds while Kimi Raikkonen was worse as he lost 0.570 seconds from Hamilton.
Nevertheless, Ferrari is always able to show off at an important time. Vettel managed to seize pole in the last three races and won the first two races.
"I think the speed is still very close," said Hamilton at Autosport. "Not really sure where Ferrari's pace is today, but they may be deliberately underperform, or something, they'll be all out tomorrow."
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"Red Bull is definitely very close to my pace again, so it will be relatively tight in the top three-team natara."
"I can not tell you who is the fastest now, because again, (level) of fuel and maybe somebody does not get a spin or something like that, so tomorrow we will get more understanding."
Mercedes dominated the Spanish race in the last five years by winning three of them. Hamilton came out as champions in 2014 and 2017.