From the beginning of the field to the end of the field in a few hours. Lewis Hamilton started out testing and crashed hard from the sprint to qualifying.
After finishing second in the sprint race, which he led for 9 laps, Lewis Hamilton was asked in the press conference how much this success needed to boost his self-confidence during his 50th winless weekend. He admitted that it gave him a boost to feel what it was like to be on the field again.
Then reality quickly pulled him back. On the ground… And in the qualifying session that ended a few hours later, he was already eliminated in the first quarter…
Hamilton did not chase vain dreams before qualifying. He knew they wouldn't be able to finish the race the same distance he had the day before, when he was on the front row in the rain. He didn't: “The most important thing is to get to Division Three.”
His lack of success this time was not only due to the speed of his car. With his fast lap in the heat of the first section of the season, he could have led based on the breakaway times, but in the hairpin corner he slid badly off the curve, landing on the wheel arch, and losing momentum on acceleration. With the time lost there, he only managed 18th in the very dense field, with 19th and 20th only being one second behind Max Verstappen. His teammate George Russell showed what was available: he ran half a second better and still finished seventh.
“I should have done it. It was my fault. I couldn't slow the car down. It wasn't a good ride.”
Hamilton admitted to a Formula 1 reporter, then added: “The car felt completely different now. We changed it to a timing device.
Regarding these changes A Sky SportsL said “I struggled. We made a big change in the time trial. It wasn't bad in places, but I couldn't stop at Turn 14. That's it.”
Lewis Hamilton (Image: XPB)He pointed out that this time too, they are on separate paths with Russell, because their team is simply forced to experiment. In response to the question, after the good performance shown in the race, have they perhaps changed with Sunday in mind?
“George and I drove a very similar car in the morning, but in the afternoon we started trying the car again. It went one way, completely off, and he went the other way. Just to see if we could find anything. That's what we need to do.” “We have to do it now, but it didn't work.”
Regarding Sunday, he said he expects a tough race and that he wouldn't mind if it rained again. “I'll do everything. Eighteenth place is really bad. When we changed the settings, I said, 'Sure it can't do any worse than this.' But still…” – He laughed forcibly, accompanied by some insults.
