Former F1 champion dismisses his own Mercedes as "undrivable"

Lewis Hamilton declared his Mercedes car to be "getting worse" and dismissed any hope it will improve before next year after struggling in Friday's practice for this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion, who claimed his maiden Formula One victory at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2007 and has triumphed a record seven times at the track, finished a lowly 13th in second practice.

He admitted that the Mercedes he has struggled with this season is "here for the year" and unlikely to change or be improved sufficiently to bring an upturn in form or results. Blighted by performance problems, notably with "porpoising" and bouncing, the team had chosen to try some radical set-up ideas in a bid to solve their problems.

"The car is getting worse the more we do to it. It's pretty much like every Friday for us – trying lots of things, including an experimental floor on my side, which didn't work. Nothing we do to this car seems to work. We were going in different ways but nothing works. For me it was a disaster. We keep working on it, but it is what it is and I think this is the car for the year so we just have to tough it out and work hard on building a better car for next year." 

Hamilton said that he and team-mate George Russell, who was seventh fastest on Friday, had gone in opposite directions with radical set-up proposals to improve performance, notably the "porpoising" that has left them both with acute back pain this season.

The team's chief technical officer James Allison was at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Friday to help Mercedes find a solution to their problems. Hamilton laughed as he described the experience of driving his car as it bounced, jumped and moved around on the track. In the closing minutes, with a new floor fitted, he told the team "this car is now undrivable".

Hamilton said also that he felt relieved to have completed the day without more serious physical concerns after suffering acute back problems last Sunday in Baku.

World champion and series leader Max Verstappen of Red Bull set the pace as he completed a double top in Friday's practise for this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix. The 24-year-old Dutchman, who will start his 150th Formula One race on Sunday, clocked a best lap time of one minute and 14.127 seconds in the second session, having been quickest in the opening period earlier, to beat Ferrari's Charles Leclerc by 0.081 seconds.

Carlos Sainz was third-quickest in the second Ferrari ahead of resurgent four-time champion Sebastian Vettel of Aston Martin and two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Alpine. Pierre Gasly improved to take sixth place for AlphaTauri ahead of Mercedes' George Russell, Lando Norris and his McLaren team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. Esteban Ocon was 10th in the second Alpine ahead of a strangely off-colour Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull, local hope Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin and the annoyed Hamilton in the second Mercedes.