Lewis Hamilton says he went into qualifying knowing he needed to make a “huge leap” after a difficult practice day, before securing his best grid position yet for a race with Ferrari.
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“It’s been a very tricky weekend for me,” Hamilton admitted. He missed first practice while junior driver Dino Beganovic took the wheel of his car, which left him having to play catch-up for the rest of the day.
Ferrari introduced a significant upgrade for the weekend, but Hamilton still found himself seven-tenths off the pace after final practice and almost half a second slower than team mate Charles Leclerc. “I really struggled to get on pace after missing [first practice],” he said.
“I’ve never felt so down before at the size of the gap between Charles and me and to everybody else. At times it felt like half a second to eight tenths; in one session it was about a second to the front row.
“So I needed to make a huge leap going into qualifying. I knew where the time was, I just needed the confidence in the car, especially at the rear.
“We made some good adjustments over the session, but this result is really down to everyone back at the factory. They’ve worked incredibly hard. We have a clear direction and for them to bring this upgrade here this weekend, I can’t thank them enough for their effort.”
Leclerc had looked set for a strong qualifying performance before crashing in Q3; Hamilton believes his team mate carried too much speed into turn four.
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“These cars are tricky in general,” Hamilton said. “For me the car felt really good. We ran essentially the same setup in qualifying, and Charles has been quick all weekend.
“On the day I was braking very late into turn four, which had been visible, and I think Charles probably tried to carry a lot of speed into that corner. Unfortunately it didn’t work out for him, but he’ll still be very quick in the race.”
Although Ferrari’s upgrade has made the car more competitive, Hamilton stressed it has been challenging to extract the maximum performance this weekend.
“From a car standpoint we’re constantly trying to find the perfect balance, which is almost impossible, but we keep getting closer. The tyres are very peaky; there’s a narrow window where the fronts and rears work together. You can have strong grip through turns one, two and three, then struggle through four and the rest of the lap.
“It’s the finest margin I can remember to get every ounce of performance from the car, but I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made on balance. Of course, there’s always room to improve.”
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