After smashing up his car in Saturday’s third free practice at the exit of Fagnes, Lewis Hamilton qualifying just 0.002s behind Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc could be seen as a successful exercise in damage limitation, but that’s not how the seven-time Formula 1 world champion views it.
Leclerc and Hamilton qualified fifth and sixth at Spa-Francorchamps; a logical enough result on paper for the Scuderia on the high-speed Ardennes loop where it expected its power unit deficit to Mercedes to be too big a hurdle to overcome.
But while Leclerc was dented by an erroneously displayed yellow flag in his bid to sneak ahead of a struggling George Russell, Hamilton also felt there was a missed opportunity to qualify higher up.
While praising his Maranello team for rebuilding the car between FP3 and qualifying, Hamilton said the extensive repair job left his car feeling out of balance on the rear end.
The specification of Hamilton’s SF-26 didn’t change, but because the team was under time pressure to get his car out before the start of qualifying, Hamilton noticed a subtle set-up change that tilted his car set-up out of balance and cost him one or two tenths per lap.
“I think something wasn’t the same on the rear suspension, so the balance wasn’t the same as I had in FP3, when the car was feeling really great,” Hamilton explained.
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Photo by: Marc Fleury
“The guys did a great job repairing the car and these things happen, you move on. I did the best I could in qualifying, I think my laps were pretty decent.
“They pushed right until the last minute to get the thing fixed, so I’m just grateful they did and I hope the car is still OK in the race.”
When asked by Autosport if the majority of his half-second deficit to polesitter Kimi Antonelli was down to the power unit, Hamilton replied: “I’m not quite sure, I haven’t seen the overlay, so I definitely know in my last sector I was losing some. But they’ve been up on deployment all weekend and we expected it on the track when you have 50% more straights.”
But given how “great” Hamilton’s car felt this weekend, the Briton was still upbeat on his chances to challenge for the podium.
“In FP3 the car was feeling really good and I did a bit of a long run and the car was feeling great,” he said. “It is a slightly different, subtly different car set-up wise, so I’m still hoping it’s good for tomorrow.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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