A fourth place for Hamilton
The weekend of Lewis Hamilton in Belgium was far from straightforward, starting with that FP3 incident that cost him a lot in terms of feeling with his Ferrari SF-26. The Englishman did not go beyond fifth place in qualifying and in today’s race he had more than one setback, starting from the 5″ penalty for the contact that took George Russell out of the race, to the pit stop where one of the mechanics fell and finally the incorrect wing adjustment that did not make the final part of the GP easier for him. Perhaps, all things considered, fourth place is an acceptable result.
Hamilton is now second in the standings, 45 points behind the world championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Read more Hamilton penalty, Vasseur disagrees: “FIA harsh! Russell was closing in, contact inevitable”
Lewis takes responsibility
Lewis Hamilton, in the interview with Sky Sports Uk, did not look for excuses: “I don’t consider myself unlucky, because I think back to the mistake I made yesterday. I fully take responsibility for the fourth place I got, because I was the one who damaged the car. When they fixed it, they missed something on the suspension and consequently the setup was completely different. This meant being two or three tenths slower, slower than I should have been.”
Read more Verstappen: “I gave everything I had. 3rd place is a good result”
In short, for the Ferrari champion everything started from that Saturday morning mistake: “So I ended up starting from the back, got involved in the incident and received a five-second penalty. There was a domino effect caused by my mistake, but the team did a great job with strategy and pit stops. I think with today’s pace, without the damage, we could have fought for the win,” Hamilton concluded.
Read more Team radio Ferrari | Leclerc: “Tense race, lucky with the VSC”, Hamilton: “My fault”
