Lewis Hamilton battling pain at Azerbaijan GP as Brit and George Russell plagued by issues

Lewis Hamilton has admitted he is struggling with soreness caused by Mercedes' bouncing at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Hamilton's car suffered from severe porpoising around the high-speed Baku street circuit and was over a second-and-a-half slower than pace-setter Charles Leclerc in the second practice session on Friday.

The Briton has endured a forgettable 2022 season so far having failed to score a podium finish since the first race in Bahrain. He is 75 points adrift of Drivers' Championship leader Max Verstappen, who narrowly beat him to the driver's title back in December for Red Bull.

Asked by Sky Sports F1 what the hardest thing was about Friday's two sessions in Azerbaijan, Hamilton replied simply: "Bouncing." Asked if he's alright, the seven-time world champion added: "I'll get by. I'm a bit sore but yeah. We're hitting some serious speeds at the end here and it's bouncing a lot."

On the difference in performance in the two sessions, having ended P6 in FP1 and P12 in FP2, Hamilton added: "We tried something experimental on my car and it didn't feel that great to be honest. But least we tried it and got some data on it and now we'll go through it.

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"For tomorrow we'll probably revert back to what we changed. Tyres feel to us like they're working well. No issues. I just can't really tell you, we're 1.6 seconds or 1.3 seconds [behind] or whatever it is, that's a long way away. A lot of it is on the straights."

Hamilton's team-mate George Russell has finished in the top five in all seven races so far this season but also encountered problems in Baku. He ended second practice seventh quickest but well over a second behind Leclerc, having been P8