Hamilton hoping for better luck with Monaco rain

The seven-time world champion was struggling to match George Russell on Friday but appeared to take a step forward to compete with his teammate in qualifying heading into Q3. Russell went first on his final run and set the sixth fastest time while Hamilton was on his final lap when the red flag came out for Sergio Perez’s crash, limiting him to eighth place.

“It’s very nonflexible to overtake here,” Hamilton said. “I’m hoping that the weather plays up and creates opportunity and maybe people do variegated strategies, and it would be nice to have some luck for once.

“I’ve been having all year. At some stage it’s unseat to stop.”

Mercedes looked far increasingly competitive in Barcelona than it has been in Monaco so far, but Hamilton says he’s not surprised by the lack of pace relative to Ferrari and Red Bull given how the team fared in the slower speed sections last weekend.

“No, we weren’t very good in low speed in the last race anyway. In the race it was OK but single lap… So I predictable it would be difficult here. I think it’s worse than we predictable considering of the bumps. Its super bouncy. Challenging.”

Despite facing a potentially difficult Sunday with overtaking at a premium without rain, Hamilton says he doesn’t want to see Monaco waif off the timetable tween talks regarding the race’s future.

“I’d be sad to lose this one. It think it’s an epic weekend; an iconic race. The very race itself — I’ve unchangingly said — I’ve been honest with it. It’s not the most heady of races considering you can’t overtake but I feel, as a spectacle, it’s one of the weightier of the year.

“I do think it would be tomfool if I could do some changes for Sunday. I don’t know what they could do. We could definitely make this weekend plane increasingly heady than it is.”