Mercedes F1 driver Lewis Hamilton smoothly sailed to a provisional P2 finish in the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, narrowly losing out to teammate George Russell who did a one-stop.
However, the win was given to Hamilton after Russell got disqualified. The car was under the minimum weight set by the FIA.
The 7-time World Champion chased after Russell in the last stint to try and get ahead of his teammate, but a lock-up at La Source and dirty air destroyed his hopes of making the move. He never even got by side-by-side.
There was a moment where Hamilton spoke on team radio about something moving in between his legs. He said after the race that it was just something rolling inside the car and that it was not a serious issue.
“I just said there was something as I was going through the corner, something kept rolling underneath my left leg. Not a serious issue though.”
Hamilton took the lead from Charles Leclerc on lap 3, and he had completely controlled the race from there until his second stop.
He commented about the low tyre degredation and how he felt his first set of hards a lot more to give. The 104-time polesitter wanted to stay on track and continue, but he was called in.
That left him chasing Russell, ultimately falling short on track.
“Mine was pretty smooth sailing, to be honest. I was fully in control.”
“I had plenty of pace and tyres and just didn’t end up as it planned. Plenty of tyres.
“I mean, if you listen, you could have heard what I said to the team most of the time, but yeah, I think the tyres were pretty good.
“I still had plenty of tyres and I was going quicker. I didn’t want to stop.”
Asked about how the car progressed during the weekend, as on Friday they lacked pace compared to McLaren and Red Bull, the now 105-time race winner commented that he was surprised to get onto the lead and pull away like he did.
“It was literally night and day different today. On Friday, it was pretty disastrous for both of us and really struggling with balance.
“Then today, the car came alive and I was really surprised to firstly get into the lead and then be pulling away from everyone.”
