Hamilton floored by headaches caused by COTA bumps

Lewis Hamilton said the headaches he suffered as a result of the bumps at the Circuit of the Americas left him needing to lie down.

Several drivers reported issues with the uneven surface during Friday practice in Austin, Texas.

Hamilton reported concerns that the track may not be safe during FP1, but handled the challenge sufficiently to run fastest of all in FP2.

After a bruising day to start a weekend that is likely to see him secure a sixth world title, Hamilton called on COTA to make changes to the circuit for years to come.

"It was the bumpiest track by far that I have ever been on. I had such a headache," Hamilton said.

"The bumps are not such a bad thing in some places because it just adds characteristics, it adds that character to a circuit. So I'm not a fan of completely smooth circuits.

"But this one is like massive, massive bumps, and the problem for us is that we don't have much suspension. It's usually your butt on the floor, and your spine takes all the compression, so I was feeling horrible.

"I had a massive headache after P1, I had to lay down, I was not feeling great. We made some changes to make it a little bit better for the second one so it wasn't feeling as bad through P2, so fingers crossed.

"Some of those [bumps], how they were before, that's a good characteristic to have, because it makes it quite difficult, you have to brake a bit earlier, you don't want to brake on the bump.

"Today's been pretty hardcore. I'm sure they'll make changes for the future, but we have to drive around it, everyone is in the same boat."

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