A Fourth Row at Suzuka
Lewis Hamilton certainly hoped for a better result than eighth place in the Japanese Grand Prix qualifying. However, the Briton, who was quite close to teammate Charles Leclerc in Q1 and Q2, faltered during the crucial laps of Q3, ending up in a disappointing eighth position, even behind Isack Hadjar’s Racing Bulls.
The British driver’s analysis
Lewis Hamilton detailed the difficulties encountered at the 5.807-kilometre Suzuka Circuit in an interview with Sky Sport UK following the qualifying session for the Japanese Grand Prix : “We’re running with an SF-25 higher than we’d like. I don’t know if everyone else is in the same boat. But we, particularly after what happened at the last race, are a bit higher than we’d like. This is the direct effect of the last weekend,” the Briton explained, referring to the disqualification in China due to excessive wear on the floor.
Lewis Hamilton explained that he chose a different setup compared to Charles Leclerc: “Not good enough from my side, P8 is not great. It was a challenging Saturday for us. We made some changes to the car ahead of qualifying which, unfortunately, didn’t deliver the improvements we were aiming for. The car felt more balanced in the earlier stages, but I experienced significant understeer in Q3 which led to a couple of small mistakes that cost us. Charles did a great lap. I had a lot of understeer and couldn’t dial it up for qualifying. We went in different directions, and I had a lot of understeer. I couldn’t manage it during qualifying. My result wasn’t enough, I didn’t do any great laps in Q3, and P8 isn’t much,” he concluded: “I didn’t get everything out of the car, but yes, we need to develop the car.” – the seven-time Formula 1 world champion added.
