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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Marc Mayo

Lewis Hamilton eyes talks with Mercedes over painful bouncing issues that left F1 star limping after Baku race

Lewis Hamilton wants to sit down with his Mercedes mechanics to end the bouncing which caused the seven-time world champion serious pain during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Despite piloting his car to fourth place in Sunday’s race, the 37-year-old suffered from constant bouncing issues around the streets of Baku as his Merc flexed in a far more violent manner than the rest of the grid - with Formula One’s new ground effect creating porpoising problems throughout the pack.

TV cameras witnessed Hamilton gingerly exiting his car at the end of the grand prix and he told team radio that his engineers must “make some changes” to ensure he does not suffer a serious injury.

When asked by Sky Sports if adrenaline was all that got him through the race, he replied: “That’s the only thing, just bite down on my teeth in pain... just adrenaline.

“I can’t express the pain that you would experience, particularly on the straight here. At the end you’re just praying for it to end.

“We’re in such a good position still, third and fourth is a great result for the team, we did a great job with the strategy and once we fix this bouncing we’ll be right up there in the race. But we’re losing at least a second just with bouncing.

“I’ll be at the factory tomorrow, we’ve got to have some good discussions and keep pushing.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff apologised to Hamilton after the race, which saw the Brit secure a solid points haul behind teammate George Russell in third.

He said: “We all know this is a bit of a **** to drive at the moment, sorry for the back also, we will sort this out.”

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