Lewis Hamilton says Charles Leclerc had all the answers in F1 Belgian GP, as George Russell rues Lap 1 block.
For Mercedes, it was once more a fourth place and sixth place finish in Belgium with Hamilton ahead of Russell. The seven time WDC also added a bonus point for the fastest lap which he took away from Max Verstappen on the final lap. The former was in the fight for podium against Charles Leclerc, but it wasn’t to be.
“I’ve always felt like he had an answer for all the laps I did,” said Hamilton to media. “They had the upper hand this weekend. I was trying, I was pushing a lot, I had a lot of deg, particularly in the middle sector. But still, we got the fastest lap in the end, there’s lots of positives to take from this weekend. We’ve got work to do, naturally.”
Interestingly, Hamilton further blighted by the buzz word from last season, porpoising which he seemingly felt during the race. “Struggled at the beginning, rear end is our biggest issue and we had big bouncing this weekend, so we were back to the bouncing like we had last year,” he said. “The team don’t know what’s caused the bouncing”.
“To me it is a concern but we’ll work through the data this week and try and figure out what we do for the next race. I know what I want, I’m praying for it and I’m just waiting for the day we get it,” summed up Hamilton.
The break will do them the power of good but despite everything, he appeared upbeat about the weekend while team-mate Russell was glad to have Spa behind him after having struggled for much of the weekend. “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a weekend like this in my whole career,” he said. “One, in terms of the weather changing so often”.
“Like, I don’t think I’ve lived a day of my life like Saturday, it was just unbelievable.” After weekend struggles, Russell too is looking forward to the mid-season break. He did advise that had it not been for some bad luck on the opening lap he would have taken fifth and not sixth.
“It was alright,” said Russell. “I was very unfortunate at the beginning. I made a really strong start, and then I saw Oscar going slowly. I thought it was a puncture, but didn’t realise he’d lost his steering. I decided to go to the left, he was just drifting to the left, I got boxed in, and I lost four positions”.
“That probably cost me one position at the end of the race. I should’ve been ahead of Fernando. I think one stop around here was a pretty competitive stint. The last stint I felt really strong on the soft tyre. I mean, it was definitely tricky when the rain started coming down. Again, if we knew how much rain there was going to be, we would have pitted onto the soft, and that’s when you would have had the biggest difference in those challenging conditions”.
“But yeah, all in all, it was a good race. Both the races were competitive, opening that gap to P3 in the championship. It’s just been a really challenging weekend. Glad it’s over. A bit of a reset, and go again,” summed up Russell.
Here’s how F1 Belgian GP panned out