Hamilton: Hardest thing about today was the bouncing

The only comfort for the reigning Formula 1 World Champion team is that they were not alone, nevertheless for Hamilton, it was cause for concern.

After ending the day 12th, 1.650s off the pace set by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, Hamilton said in the team report: "The hardest thing about today was the bouncing, we're hitting serious speeds at the end of the straight and bottoming out. We're facing the same problems as in the last race.

"We tried something experimental on my car in the second session, it didn't feel great but at least we tried it and we got some useful data to go through. We'll probably revert to the original set-up tomorrow.

"I can't tell you one specific area which is costing us the 1.3 or 1.6 secs difference to the front, a lot of it seems to be on the straight but we need to get our heads down tonight and find solutions," concluded the event time F1 World Champion.

Mercedes admitted they still had "performance to find in the W13 after a tricky practice day on the streets of Baku; the car experienced a poor ride and bottoming on the straights which cost lap time.

"Both drivers struggled for grip in the cooler second practice session of the day. The team experimented with setup items across both cars for a useful comparison and the factory will be busy overnight to arrive at FP3 in better shape."

Mercedes trackside boss Andrew Shovlin added: "The morning session in hotter conditions was better for us than the afternoon when it cooled somewhat but regardless, we've got a bit of work to do to find time on single lap and long run.

"The balance isn't a major issue but we're lacking grip in the corners and the ride on the straights is uncomfortable for the drivers, so we need to improve that overnight. Our straight-line speed also isn't great but some of that will be due to us hitting the ground on the straights.

"We did have some new parts on the car today, so we'll review whether those were contributing to our issues.

"Overall, we're not in a good position and it's one where we need to be looking for some fundamental improvements rather than a case of fine-tuning," explained Shovlin.

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix is Round 8 of the 2022 F1 World Championship.