Lewis Hamilton claims he is ready for what he anticipates will be a fiercely competitive race at the Belgian Grand Prix. After securing a commendable third position in a rain-affected qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps, Hamilton is now preparing for a challenging contest, especially under the prospect of dry race conditions which could hinder his Mercedes setup.
During the qualifying rounds, unpredictable weather played to Hamilton’s strengths. He explained to Sky Sports F1 during a post-qualifying interview:
“The Red Bulls are much quicker than us here and the McLarens are much quicker than us here.
“The Ferraris, I think, are there or thereabouts with us.
“Obviously, Max is going to make his way through because I think they are the quickest this weekend.
“So holding on to the podium is going to be a hell of a fight – but I’m ready for it.”
He continued:
“When it rained then I knew that we would have a chance of being at the front because those are my preferred conditions.
“I think if it was dry we would have been struggling to be in the top 10, I imagine – it would have been tough.
“Timing was everything, getting out on track at the right point. I think we were a little bit too early at the end, we were first out, and that’s when we used our new tyres, and then we didn’t have any new tyres until the end and the three guys ahead did.
“So a little bit unfortunate in that respect but that’s the way it is. But I’m grateful to be up there.
“I think if I’d had another set I would have been fighting for the front row.”
Mercedes’ strategy and car setup have seen significant overnight changes, especially with the mechanics and aerodynamics, as confirmed by Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, who commented:
“We weren’t happy with the balance or pace of the car [on Friday], so we made some fairly major changes to the mechanical and aero specification of the car overnight.
“We’d hoped for a dry window in FP3 to evaluate those, but unfortunately it stayed wet throughout and there was no chance to accumulate any meaningful running.
“We don’t know where we will stack up on race pace, as the car is quite different to the one we ran in the dry. Starting from P3 and P6 though, we are hopefully well placed to fight for a podium.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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