28/07/2023
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton will line up third and George Russell eighth for Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.
On a day of changeable conditions, Lewis was fourth quickest in qualifying but promoted to third due to Max Verstappen's five-place grid penalty.
Earlier in the day, FP1 was something of a wash out as drivers completed minimal laps due to heavy rain which came and went throughout the 60 minutes.
Another rain shower in the run-up to qualifying left the track damp as Q1 got underway. Both cars successfully navigated the first segment before tackling the wet/dry crossover point in Q2; Lewis and George's final runs on the soft tyre proving enough to see them through to Q3.
With a clear dry line appearing, the times continued to improve as time ticked down in the final part of qualifying. On their final laps, Lewis and George went fourth and eighth fastest respectively.
Lewis Hamilton: I'm happy with today's result. It was a hectic session as it was consistently drying up. It was very slippery at the beginning and visibility was a challenge. You know that every lap you are going to be improving as it dries up, so you need to maximise it. That's why we were waiting at the end of the pitlane each session and the Team did a great job of getting us out there and finding clear track. I kept my head down and focused on maximising as much as I could.
At the end, we were a good chunk off Max and his lap was pretty impressive. We're pleased with where we are starting though. I'll now have Max behind me on Sunday, but the aim is definitely to fight for a podium and chase down the guys ahead. No one got any real running in FP1 so I'm hoping that we have decent long run pace. Setting the car up ahead of qualifying was a bit of a guessing game. The car felt pretty decent, but we lost a lot of time in the middle sector. We'll go away, study it, and see where there is time to be found. We will work on making any improvements we can, and we'll be giving it everything we've got for the rest of the weekend. So far though, it's a good start.
George Russell: It was a dynamic session. We were a bit off the pace for the entire session and struggled throughout; I'm not sure why. I usually love those transitional conditions between wet and dry, but on every lap we were nowhere. There's plenty to review and try to understand. We know qualifying isn't everything around here, but we would of course have liked to be higher up the order.
The lack of running in FP1 wasn't too much of a factor as it's the same for everyone. You always want to do more laps to further your understanding, but the car didn't feel too bad. There's a decent amount for us to try and understand overnight.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: Sprint race weekends are challenging. When you get no useful running in the first session, they become even more difficult. You need to rely entirely on the pre-weekend simulations to set the car up and get it balanced. Today's qualifying session was tricky with the changing conditions; the long lap doesn't make that any easier as you don't get many attempts in each session.
Lewis was very close to Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez but unfortunately, we were missing a tenth. George struggled a bit for pace as the track moved to dry. We'll have a look through the data and see what there is to learn ahead of the sprint qualifying tomorrow; hopefully we'll find a bit of speed. We've had no real dry running yet, so the sprint race is going to a bit of a long run test ahead of Sunday's Grand Prix. We can't change the car now so hopefully we've got the race balance in the right place.
Check out our Friday gallery from Spa here.