Hamilton unhappy with surface at Istanbul Park

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton were not the dominant team on Friday at Istanbul Park for the first time in a long time. Hamilton admitted his frustration at the new surface that had been laid.

“It was a bit of a disaster today, if I am honest. This is such a great circuit and I don't quite understand why they spend millions on re-paving. I know it hasn't been done for a long time, but maybe we should have just cleaned it up instead of wasting that money," Hamilton told Formula 1.

Softer tires might have helped

Hamilton revealed he did not enjoy the first day very much and that that is unlikely to change for the rest of the weekend. 

"That would certainly have helped. The hard tire is useless, the medium is so so and the soft tire is slowly improving. If we had had the softest tire in the world, maybe that would have been better."