Lewis Hamilton had a tricky time of it in Barcelona, finishing four places behind his team mate despite starting ahead of Charles Leclerc. While his seventh-place finish was upgraded to sixth following Max Verstappen’s penalty, it was still a far cry from what he had hoped for.
After qualifying fifth on Saturday, Hamilton had high hopes of challenging Verstappen and George Russell for the final podium spot, having yet to finish on the rostrum in a Grand Prix this season. Overtaking Russell off the line only raised hopes that a podium was possible – but then Hamilton’s race unravelled.
He did not have as much pace as his team mate who was hot on his tail, with the team opting to swap their drivers as early as Lap 10 – albeit that they were on differing strategies.
He then dropped back behind Russell through the pit stop periods, on what was a difficult afternoon.
Hamilton did not have the pace of his team mate in Barcelona
“Today was definitely not what I was hoping for. I felt good going into the race, after a pretty good Qualifying and the car performing better. But the balance felt off throughout the race and we lacked pace from the start,” Hamilton explained.
“We don’t have an explanation for it, so we’ll have to go away and look into the data and any underlying issues. Congratulations to Charles, he did a great job and fully deserved the podium.”
Hamilton also suffered the pain of being out-dragged by Nico Hulkenberg’s Kick Sauber on the straight at the Safety Car restart. The only small positive for the seven-time World Champion was that at least P7 became P6 at the flag following Verstappen’s 10-second time penalty.
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“[I] just didn’t have any speed at the end,” confirmed Hamilton, who is still struggling to get on top of the SF-25. He added that he had learned “absolutely nothing” from the triple header, despite Imola being his best Grand Prix result of the season with a fourth-placed finish.
Canada is up next for the F1 circus – a track Hamilton has previously excelled at, with seven wins around Montreal to his name.
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