Hamilton will be looking to end his Mercedes career on a high note with a strong performance in Abu Dhabi before transitioning to Ferrari for the next chapter of his career. With his positive start to the weekend, he will be aiming to challenge the McLaren and Ferrari teams at the front of the grid.
As the season finale approaches, Hamilton’s focus and determination are evident as he savors the final moments with his Mercedes team. Fans will be eagerly watching to see how he finishes his tenure with the Silver Arrows before embarking on a new journey with Ferrari in the upcoming seasons.
On a single lap I think we’ve got some work to do. Lewis Hamilton admitted he underestimated how difficult his final Mercedes year would be and that he hasn’t handled his emotions very well, ahead of his final race for the team at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In a frank admission on Thursday, the Briton admitted that he had not always controlled his emotions in the best way during his final season at the Silver Arrows having announced his shock Ferrari switch before the campaign even started. Asked how he was managing his feelings on his final weekend at Mercedes, Hamilton said: There’s no trick to it, I’m trying to keep my emotions under control as much as I can. I said [on Thursday], I’ve not been great at it this year, I’ve definitely been very up and down – that’s human emotion, that’s normal – but I’m just really trying to channel it into the car, into the squad, the team. I’ve so much love for the team and I’ve been wanting to do well for them for ages, but one last go at it. I won’t change too much in the car tonight and hopefully [in qualifying] we’ll be there or thereabouts. Russell: McLaren in a league of their own so far. Team-mate George Russell has certainly been ending the year in more consistently strong form than Hamilton, but on Friday finished three tenths of a second behind his team-mate in 13th place on the Practice Two timesheet. Russell – whose weekend started with a furious reaction to Max Verstappen’s critical comments about him in Qatar – said he had been running experimental set-ups on the W15 on Friday. Today we struggled a bit but it’s only Friday, he said. We’re trying a lot of things in preparation for next year.