Hamilton describes lap of Monaco: I wouldn't say it's fun

The Circuit de Monaco is hailed as the greatest challenge a Formula 1 driver can face, but Lewis Hamilton says that does not necessarily make it a fun track to navigate. The Mercedes man looked well at ease on the famous streets on Thursday practice, topping both timesheets.

Mercedes have not always gone so well on the tight, twisting course but the W10 is a different beast in the corners, with Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in a league of their own ahead of the crucial qualifying.

With looming barriers all around the track, and the pressure on to deliver, Hamilton says the pressure that builds around a lap keeps the smile off his face.

"Honestly, I wouldn't say it's fun," Hamilton said. "It's incredibly intense out there. You have to be so focused, just the smallest mistake…

"When you look into Tabac, for example, the speed you're going towards that corner… and it's just a wall in front of you. Going up the hill to Casino it's the same thing.

"So it's no joke and whilst it's definitely always a great thing to drive the car it's just so intense."

Perhaps also painting Hamilton's mood a shade of glum is Monaco's tendency to produce soporific racing.

Having spent a lap of the track behind Daniil Kvyat's slow-moving Toro Rosso on Thursday, Hamilton hopes future trips to Monaco might be met with a change to spice up Sunday.

He added: "It's definitely noticeable there's a lot less room on the circuit. I was behind one car that was just on an out-lap and I couldn't get by.

"Unfortunately it's not a great racing track, but it's a great track to drive single laps on.

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"I don't know if there's anything they can do for the future in terms of the race setup.

"We're just doing a long stint where it's a one-stop for everyone on Sunday – most likely a train, we already know that's going to be the case.

"I wonder if in the future… they keep changing the technical rules for the car but it's probably other things that could also change."

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