Lewis Hamilton woke up and squirmed when he saw images of himself in yesterday's papers hanging lifelessly on a trapeze wire in an Istanbul theatre at the behest of McLaren Mercedes' chief sponsor, Vodafone.

The British Formula One star, who is in Istanbul preparing for tomorrow's Turkish Grand Prix, was clearly embarrassed by the episode on Thursday, when, in the role of Apollo, the Greek God, he was required to “fly” on to the set of a local stage show depicting the sacking of Troy.

Speaking after completing his second session of free practice at the superb track in Istanbul Park, Hamilton did not hide his irritation at having been made to look silly by Vodafone, which sponsors both McLaren, to the tune of £300million, and the local Turkish blockbuster show, the Fire of Anatolia.

The 22-year-old driver admitted that he was delighted to be back at a racetrack and away from the theatre. “After yesterday I thought, ‘That really was not cool,'” he said. “I just turned up and got on with what I'd been told to do. Now I've seen the footage and it's one of the worst things I've seen. I have a cool image and things like that don't help.”

Immediately after the “performance” on Thursday, Hamilton joked about how he might fancy a bit of acting after he finishes his driving career. But after this brush with the absurd - he looked more like Peter Pan or an astronaut than a majestic Apollo - he was not so sure. It seems that Hollywood will have to wait. “That's for sure,” he said, laughing. “It was fun, though. I like challenges and it was something different and nothing to do with driving. I did a bit of acting just to show I can do it - I hope the Hollywood people have seen it [more laughter]. But let's forget about the theatre. It's better for me to be in cars, that's what I do best.”

Although the stunt has gone down as a real turkey in Britain, it was a huge success with the Turkish domestic audience and was given big play in the local media but for very different reasons to its prominence elsewhere.

It appears to have been the brainchild of the Turkish Vodafone PR team and was allowed to go ahead by their British counterparts, who did not spot the obvious pitfalls. Hamilton, meanwhile, has no media consultant of his own to help him sidestep such elephant traps and he simply did what he was asked to by his McLaren and Vodafone minders.

Back on the track, Hamilton had a reasonable day in unseasonally cold temperatures and occasional rain, running third fastest in the morning session behind Felipe Massa, of Ferrari, and his McLaren team-mate, Heikki Kovalainen, and second fastest behind Kimi Raikkonen, of Ferrari, in the afternoon.

Few are predicting anything other than a Ferrari win tomorrow and possibly a third consecutive “one-two” for Massa and Raikkonen. Hamilton knows that he is up against it, in terms of his car's performance, but he believes that McLaren have made progress since last time out at the Spanish Grand Prix.

“They [Ferrari] are quicker in the last sector, as they were in Barcelona,” he said. “It's close and closer than Barcelona, the car feels as strong as it was in the race in Spain and I know through the weekend it's going to get better.”

Asked if he could win this weekend, he said: “I wouldn't be smiling now if I didn't think it was winnable.”

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