Lewis Hamilton has hailed his mourning Mercedes team and says the performances of the car itself are 'fantastic' ahead of qualifying on Saturday for Sunday's 77th Monaco Grand Prix.
The defending five-time world champion and his Silver Arrows team-mate Valtteri Bottas were seven-tenths of a second clear of third-placed Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari after Thursday's opening sessions.
"I'm surprised," he said. "I don't know where all the time has come from -- I don't know if Max (Verstappen) maybe didn't get in a time or what, but the performance we have here is fantastic.
"We're constantly improving this car and understanding it and understanding the tyre. I guess that's why you're seeing the performance advantage we have."
- Respect for Lauda -
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"Monaco is unusual in that we have an extra day between the practice sessions so it gives us more time to look at data and understand the issues."
"So it's no joke and whilst it's definitely always a great thing to drive the car, it's just so intense..."
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