On course to his 3ooth Grand Prix appearance, Lewis Hamilton should be excited for the French GP. Or he was until the Friday free practice session. Nyck de Vries, the reserve driver, replaced the Brit for FP1, but Hamilton was behind his W13 for FP2. And Hamilton is not happy with the conditions of his single-seater, but he is optimistic.

The Briton consistently secured a podium place in the last three races, and he would like to continue this run. However, the current state of the W13 makes that a monumental task. The world champion was expecting a dominant race at the Circuit Paul Ricard, but the FP2 session has mellowed down the expectations for Hamilton.

Reflecting on the practice session, Sir Hamilton shared his views on the state of the car with Sky Sports. He said, “We’re a little bit further behind than we anticipated this weekend,”

“We have a lot of work to do, a lot of ground to cover still. The car is not spectacular here, I don’t know why but overnight we usually make a bit of a step so I’m hoping that’s the case tomorrow,” the Mercedes pilot added.

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The two Ferraris dominated the FP2 with their searing pace. At the end of the session, the best Mercedes could do was fourth and fifth. Hamilton also mentioned the pace of the W13, which was off by 0.7s and losing time “everywhere, every corner”.

The practice sessions put Hamilton in touch with reality, as his comments were a striking contrast to the ones from the Thursday briefing.

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Hamilton pointed out there is a lot of work to be done overnight ahead of FP3 and the qualifying. Sadly, this was not how he expected Friday to go, especially if we look back at his comments from the Thursday briefing.

He said, “Well, every weekend we are hoping to improve for sure.” And added, “But in general, this has been a decent race for us. So I hope it’s the same this weekend.”

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The FP2 session may have put a dent in Hamilton’s hopes of winning his first race of the season. However, he is not one to back down and the weekend is still young.