No change of approach for Hamilton despite lingering penalty for F1’s Turkish GP

Hamilton has taken a fourth ICE (internal combustion engine) for this weekend meaning he will start Sunday’s race 10 places lower than where he qualifies.

It was a strong start to the weekend for the seven-time world champion as he set the pace in both Friday practice sessions.

Reflecting on his Friday at Istanbul Park, he said: “We started off with a really good set-up, the first session was really strong, made some changes, and the track is evolving and feeling different, changes were okay, not sure it felt as good as it did in the first session in the second session but we’ve got lots of good findings and hopefully take those forward.

“I need to be on pole to limit the loss and then of course I need to understand the car to do the best in terms of long run, so just trying to find the balance, no real different to any other weekend.”

The newly-laid track surface made F1’s return to Turkey in 2020 a fascinating one with the slippery conditions making for a chaotic race.

A year later, the track has improved considerably, making for an “intense” experience, according to Hamilton.

“Yeah much much different, I don’t know if you’ve told the fans but last year was a brand new surface and the oil came up from the bitumen and they cleaned it off,” Hamilton explained. 

“So I didn’t really know what to expect, but there's so much more grip than we’ve ever had before, it’s intense how much grip there is out there which is awesome, so it has made it a much more enjoyable track to drive, much like it was before.”

Hamilton has won at Istanbul Park on two previous occasions - in 2010 and 2020.