Lewis Hamilton was left to ‘pray’ for his Ferrari power unit after it caused an early retirement during second practice at the Mexican Formula 1 Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion suddenly lost power from the start-finish after 28 minutes, causing him to stop on the exit of Turn 3 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Hamilton had enjoyed a competitive FP2 so far as he was fastest on the hard tires and placed in the top five, before ultimately dropping to 11th in the final standings.
But it was still a positive day for the Scuderia, as Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc dominated both Friday practice sessions before Saturday’s FP3 and qualifying.
“I felt really good in the car,” Hamilton said. “It’s just my luck. We’ve done a really good job of putting the setup in a better place and yeah, it’s a shame.
“I think we’re really competitive this weekend as a team, but we couldn’t make the long run. So I don’t know how at all, but I know it’s really hard to pass here. As you saw some people there.”
“So they continue to investigate to find out what went wrong and just pray that everything will be okay.”
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Daniel Cardenas / Anadolu via Getty Images
The 41-year-old believes the engine failure left him on the “back foot” as he spent the first half of FP1 with an aerodynamic rake on his SF-26, completing just 25 laps.
But many others also got off to a slow start on Friday as 10 rookies took part in the opening practice, with Ferrari the only team not to field a young driver.
“I missed a bit of time in FP1 because we did rake running,” Hamilton added.
“Normally I would ask one of the young drivers to do FP1 at this track, as most people did. But I chose to do it elsewhere.
“So basically, I really only had one session, because I missed pretty much at least half of that session. So, I mean, I don’t really know where we would stand.
“I don’t think I need to make a lot of changes to the settings. I probably want the same thing because we were very fast.
“I think I already had a loss of power earlier in the lap and we’re still fast. So yeah, I’m going to give it my all tomorrow and just try to do the best with what I have.
“But I obviously feel like we could be close to competing for the top line.”
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