China is not close
Shanghai is far from Suzuka, not just geographically. The emotions of the Chinese GP, the duel won against Charles Leclerc and his first career podium as a Ferrari driver already seem very distant for Lewis Hamilton. The English driver’s Saturday in qualifying for the Japanese GP was overall disappointing. In fact, #44 did not go beyond sixth position on the grid, which given the current balance of power is somewhat the bare minimum for the drivers of the three top teams: Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari.
Read more Antonelli in top form: “Goal is to be first into Turn 1 and then have a good pace”
The Silver Arrows are unreachable for everyone, but Hamilton was also beaten by teammate Leclerc and the two McLarens of Oscar Piastri – third – and Lando Norris – fifth and who will start on the grid alongside him tomorrow. The gap from the top was also particularly heavy: a full 8 tenths from Kimi Antonelli’s pole position time.
Huge gap
Interviewed by Sky Sport F1 at the end of Q3, Hamilton let himself go in a small outburst, polite in tone but rather clear in content, which seems to reopen some wounds dating back to last year that appeared to have healed. The British veteran in fact seemed to point the finger at his SF-26, criticizing not only the performance of the Ferrari power unit – less competitive than the Mercedes one – but the car as a whole.
Read more McLaren is “strong when it counts”. And for the future there is confidence: “A good step forward”
“You can’t put all the blame just on the engine – Hamilton stated – certainly the power delivery accounts for a large part of the time. However, they [Mercedes] are also very fast in the first sector and this means that our performance is below even at the car level compared to Mercedes, so we have to close a huge gap to be able to compete“. Comments that certainly won’t have caused jumps of joy in Maranello…
