Lewis Hamilton rues change in performance for Mercedes after ‘pretty bad day’ at Spa: ‘It felt completely different’
Lewis Hamilton was left feeling downbeat after the opening day of practice at the Belgian Grand Prix, with the Mercedes driver acknowledging that being 1.2 seconds behind Lando Norris’s pace-setting time in FP2 was “not great”.
The Silver Arrows arrived into the weekend off the back of a good run of form, having clinched back-to-back victories in Austria and Great Britain before Hamilton took a podium in Hungary.
However, the team did not look to have quite the same pace as they hit the track at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday, with Hamilton ending second practice in 10th on the timesheets, though the seven-time world champion took fifth place earlier on in FP1.
Asked for his reflections on the day after jumping out of the car, Hamilton explained: “It was a pretty bad day. I don’t know what to say! Obviously it’s been feeling great in the past couple of races, it just felt completely different today.
“We worked on it, the first session was not great, but then in the second session we made some changes. It started off great, and then when I got to the soft tyre I just couldn’t improve, and there’s a bunch of balance issues we have through that.
‘The car should be better in the wet’ – Hamilton hoping for rain at Spa
“It was better in the session, but everyone else went even better, so to be 1.2 seconds behind is not great.”
While the weather has remained dry so far at the iconic circuit, the possibility of rain is still on the forecast for the rest of the event. This may not be welcome news to everyone, but Hamilton for one would welcome such conditions.
Quizzed on how he was feeling about the remainder of the weekend given the chance of inclement weather, Hamilton answered with a laugh: “Fantastic! Because if it’s dry then we’re not going to – at the moment – be in the greatest of places, but overnight we can make some changes for sure.
“I think if it rains then that opens it up a little bit and hopefully we can do a better job, and I think the car should be better in the wet than it is in the dry.”
On the other side of the Mercedes garage, George Russell ended FP1 in fourth before setting the sixth fastest time in FP2. Like Hamilton, the Briton felt that the team still have room for improvement.
“It’s always nice being here in Spa, it’s a super cool track – it’s very fast this year with a bit resurfaced,” Russell commented afterwards. “We’ve got some work to do tonight, I think McLaren are definitely a step ahead of us at the moment and Red Bull, so [we] just need to keep on assessing and go from there.”
Pushed on whether he was expecting the squad to be in this position ahead of the weekend – or if it had come as more of a surprise – Russell responded: “It’s only been 10 minutes since I’ve jumped out the car so I need to have a look.
“[I need to] look at the long run pace at high fuel, and then I think the McLarens were at max power which gives you a couple of tenths around this track, so tomorrow’s definitely a different day and I’m sure we can find a bit more tonight. But we’ve often had very good Fridays and the others have caught up on Saturdays, so hopefully that will be us this weekend.”
