Hamilton is predicting "three or four" pitstops during the Mexican Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton believes drivers might end up making at least three pitstops during Sunday's Mexican Grand Prix due to the tyres. Hamilton, who has a shot of winning his sixth F1 world championship this weekend, expresses his frustration with the tyres after Friday practice. 

Hamilton topped the first practice session of the weekend, but finished in P5 and then P4 in the following two sessions. The tyre degradation is likely due to the high altitude of the track. 

“It’s pretty useless here with the tyres, it feels like we’re going to be doing a three or four stop kind of thing. This place is so aggressive on the tyres," Hamilton is quoted by planet F1. 

“As the tyres are starting to grain, it gets a lot easier to lock the tyres up. One lock up on these things and they’re like 50p coins. It’s rattling your teeth out. Fortunately today I didn’t have any of that, I’ll try to avoid that."

“It’s just trying to understand the tyres. It was cool in the morning and a bit warmer in FP2. From the short runs and the long runs, it’s hard to pinpoint how to get these tyres working. But that’s the name of the game. We’re not massively off the Red Bulls but the Ferraris – they just keep turning up their engines down the straights. The difference between us and them is massive down a straight-line." 

Hamilton has failed to qualify on pole position since the German Grand Prix. It looks as if Ferrari have the upper hand going into the first meaningful session of the weekend.