Despite insisting that he hasn’t had “a problem” with jet lag ahead of this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was videoed by Sergio Perez appearing to sleep during the drivers’ briefing ahead of Free Practice 3 on Friday evening.
This weekend has already pushed the teams and the drivers to their physical and mental limits, due to the time difference in Sin City.
What hasn’t helped the paddock with their tiredness is how late they finally got to bed after the opening day, which didn’t conclude until 4am local time on Friday morning.
Free Practice 1 was cancelled after eight minutes on Thursday evening, before an extended Free Practice 2 session was delayed by 150 minutes.
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As a result, FP2 didn’t start until 2:30am local time, with most of the paddock having not gotten to bed until the sun had already fully risen over Sin City.
It resulted in some tired eyes on Friday evening ahead of FP3 and qualifying, with Perez having comically videoed Hamilton asleep, a clip he posted onto Instagram.
“Someone has some jet lag,” Perez comically captioned an Instagram story of Hamilton seemingly asleep, along with a laughing emoji.
Hamilton saw the funny side of Perez’s story, and reposted it with the caption: “Beauty sleep.”
Mercedes then joined in with the joke and commented: “Just resting my eyes”.
Perez’s Instagram post is even funnier given that Hamilton stated ahead of the Grand Prix that he was feeling “great”, whilst other drivers complained of feeling jet-lagged.
“I personally haven’t found it [jet lag] a problem. Still manage to keep training and I feel great,” Hamilton said ahead of the weekend, as reported by The Express.
READ: Lewis Hamilton breaks silence amid Las Vegas complaints
“I saw some of the drivers complaining about jet lag… but I’ve not found it a problem since I’ve been here. It is demanding but we know that entering the sport. If it was easy, we wouldn’t do it.”
Unfortunately for Hamilton, his Friday evening was brought to an early end, as was Perez’s.
Both drivers were eliminated in Q2 after only managing P11 and P12; however, due to a 10-place grid penalty for Carlos Sainz, Hamilton will start Saturday evening’s race in 10th, just ahead of Checo in 11th.