Lewis Hamilton has had an excellent first day in Turkey. The Brit finished the first two free practice sessions in first place, keeping his rival Max Verstappen far behind him.
Red Bull Racing hoped to get closer to Mercedes in Turkey, but there was little sign of that happening during the first day of racing. Verstappen finished a whopping six tenths behind Hamilton in the afternoon, giving him a sense of confidence heading into qualifying. "I don't know how much more but we always seem so find something extra overnight into tomorrow if its not raining and then I have a lot of work to do on Sunday. I am just going to focus on doing the best out there," he told Sky Sports afterwards.
The German team has opted to replace Hamilton's combustion engine this weekend, giving the seven-time world champion a ten-place grid penalty. Hamilton realised that a good qualifying session was therefore essential if Verstappen was to continue to make things difficult. "We need to be on pole to limit the loss and then understand the car in terms of the long run. Just trying to find the balance."
Turkish GP schedule
Saturday morning the third free practice session is scheduled at 10:00am, followed by qualifying at 1:00pm. The race starts 24 hours later.