Lewis Hamilton may be having a great time off the track in Miami, but on the track it is to a lesser extent. The Mercedes driver describes the pace of the W14 as "a slap in the face".

"It's like every weekend," Hamilton sighed in conversation with Formula1.com. "They [Red Bull] are a second ahead. We're not particularly fast and it's not easy." While Mercedes parked both cars in the first two spots in the closing stages of VT1, there was little evidence of that pace in the next two practice sessions.

Hamilton: 'Pace Mercedes a slap in the face'

He continued: "VT1 looked pretty good, but in VT2 the real pace emerged. It's just a slap in the face and it's a bit difficult to deal with. Sometimes it goes well. We'll just keep working on it and we'll regroup to see if we can make some changes to the set-up."

The third free practice did not look much better. Hamilton closed the session with a 13th time, while George Russell was stuck in 10th place. Mercedes hopes to improve ahead of qualifying, but Hamilton is already happy if he makes Q3. "I hope we make Q3 and if we do, that we can be somewhere in the middle of the top ten. That would be great," said the Mercedes driver.