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| Lewis Hamitlon: I want to be in position to slipstream up Eau Rouge | Lewis Hamitlon: I want to be in position to slipstream up Eau Rouge |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Lewis Hamilton’s second spot on the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix is no major disaster, especially after his recent travails in Germany and Hungary. Yet he surely will have wanted to come away with more. He was pipped to the top spot by his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, whom he trails by 11 points in the world championship, by a brake-glazing problem. Rosberg, however, had put together an immaculate, controlled run to take the top spot. | Lewis Hamilton’s second spot on the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix is no major disaster, especially after his recent travails in Germany and Hungary. Yet he surely will have wanted to come away with more. He was pipped to the top spot by his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, whom he trails by 11 points in the world championship, by a brake-glazing problem. Rosberg, however, had put together an immaculate, controlled run to take the top spot. |
| Pole would, of course, have been better for Hamilton. The British driver has been in good spirits all weekend, eager to re-open the fight for the title with his team-mate and happy that the team-orders incident that had angered him in Hungary had been properly dealt with by Mercedes. | Pole would, of course, have been better for Hamilton. The British driver has been in good spirits all weekend, eager to re-open the fight for the title with his team-mate and happy that the team-orders incident that had angered him in Hungary had been properly dealt with by Mercedes. |
| Hamilton had pushed hard which may have exacerbated the brake problem, indeed he ran a fine line through Pouhon on his last quick lap, but was able only to close to within two tenths of Rosberg’s time. | Hamilton had pushed hard which may have exacerbated the brake problem, indeed he ran a fine line through Pouhon on his last quick lap, but was able only to close to within two tenths of Rosberg’s time. |
| Sunday’s race will offer more and he is optimistic he can make the best of it. “I want to get away from the line as quickly as I can,” he said. “I want to be in a position to slipstream up Eau Rouge but this is a long race, so strategy will be key.” He has in mind, no doubt, the moment Sebastian Vettel did exactly that and swept past him from P2 on the Kemmel Straight here last year. | Sunday’s race will offer more and he is optimistic he can make the best of it. “I want to get away from the line as quickly as I can,” he said. “I want to be in a position to slipstream up Eau Rouge but this is a long race, so strategy will be key.” He has in mind, no doubt, the moment Sebastian Vettel did exactly that and swept past him from P2 on the Kemmel Straight here last year. |
| Rosberg, who had no brake problems, also expected more of a fight. “It is always a great battle with Lewis, he is extremely quick,” he said. “But it is only a small advantage for the race.” | Rosberg, who had no brake problems, also expected more of a fight. “It is always a great battle with Lewis, he is extremely quick,” he said. “But it is only a small advantage for the race.” |
| Yet this is also a battle being fought on many levels, as both drivers are aware. “This is not only a race on the track it is a race off the track as well,” said Mercedes’ head of motorsport, Toto Wolff, who also pointed out in relation to his drivers that: “It is natural to have ups and downs but we are not in the ‘let’s make everybody happy’ business”.Wolff and Mercedes know that tiny increments will likely decide the championship and in the first real test of every race weekend Hamilton has now been struggling for seven races. Not that there has been a single unifying factor in the malaise. | |
| At Monaco he admitted he should have put in a quicker lap before Rosberg stopped on track, preventing his final hot run; then was stymied by a lock-up in Canada, while in Austria pushing too hard caused errors at turn eight and turn two on two separate quick laps. At Silverstone he was on pole but backed off in the wet and tumbled down the grid as his rivals found grip in the final sector; Germany presented a brake failure that put his car in the wall and In Hungary an engine fire put him to the back of the grid | At Monaco he admitted he should have put in a quicker lap before Rosberg stopped on track, preventing his final hot run; then was stymied by a lock-up in Canada, while in Austria pushing too hard caused errors at turn eight and turn two on two separate quick laps. At Silverstone he was on pole but backed off in the wet and tumbled down the grid as his rivals found grip in the final sector; Germany presented a brake failure that put his car in the wall and In Hungary an engine fire put him to the back of the grid |
| Some errors then and some bad luck, and perhaps a little of both on show here. He was pushing but seemed unable to string the sectors together into a cohesive whole. But a starting position of P2 is small beer compared to the races he has recently accomplished. Two tenths down on Rosberg is marginal and crucially he starts alongside him for the first time since Canada, giving himself the chance of a straight wheel-to-wheel race rather than a frantic flog through the field. No slouch in the wet he will nonetheless hope the expected dry weather materialises in order to make the most of unchangeable conditions. | Some errors then and some bad luck, and perhaps a little of both on show here. He was pushing but seemed unable to string the sectors together into a cohesive whole. But a starting position of P2 is small beer compared to the races he has recently accomplished. Two tenths down on Rosberg is marginal and crucially he starts alongside him for the first time since Canada, giving himself the chance of a straight wheel-to-wheel race rather than a frantic flog through the field. No slouch in the wet he will nonetheless hope the expected dry weather materialises in order to make the most of unchangeable conditions. |
| Mercedes last won here in 1955 on the old layout, with some ease in a one-two victory for Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss and one of their drivers, barring a DNF will almost certainly take the flag. However, having not ruled out team-orders in future and in anticipation of the team favouring the driver with the most points as the number of races remaining diminishes, Hamilton really needs it to make sure it is his silver arrow that takes the chequered flag. | Mercedes last won here in 1955 on the old layout, with some ease in a one-two victory for Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss and one of their drivers, barring a DNF will almost certainly take the flag. However, having not ruled out team-orders in future and in anticipation of the team favouring the driver with the most points as the number of races remaining diminishes, Hamilton really needs it to make sure it is his silver arrow that takes the chequered flag. |