Lewis Hamilton expressed that he was ‘in a bit of pain’ in the cockpit of his W15 machine during FP1 at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Friday.

The track surface was repaved at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, causing some discomfort for drivers as the newly-formed bumps in the tarmac wreaked havoc on the cars. Hamilton was among those affected.

With the only free practice session of the weekend coming to an end, Hamilton dialled into the team radio to ask: “I’m actually in a bit of pain mate. How long have we got left.”

Fortunately for the seven-time world champion, race engineer Peter Bonnington came back with the news he wanted to hear, explaining that he only had one lap remaining after crossing the start-finish line.

The bumps continued to cause trouble for the Mercedes drivers though. “I’m bouncing across the track everywhere,” radioed Hamilton, while George Russell complained: “That was one bumpy ride, wow.”

When the chequered flag dropped in Sao Paulo, Russell was second-fastest of all 20 drivers with only Lando Norris quicker. Hamilton was sitting 16th in the timing charts, although he didn’t complete a soft-compound run, unlike most of his competitors.

The mood in the Mercedes camp was mixed heading into the weekend with Russell offering some choice words on the team’s 2024 challenger. “In 2022, in the porpoising era, without a doubt that was far more unpleasant, but because of the nature of those cars,” he explained.

“It was far harder to get close to the limit because you were jumping around every single corner, and you knew that it was going to bite you.

“The problem we’ve got with this car at the moment is you think it’s not going to bite you, and you can achieve a really great lap, and then suddenly, nothing changes — or you feel nothing change the following lap — and you lose all that performance. So without a doubt, this is probably the most inconsistent our performance has been as a team in probably forever.”