Lewis Hamilton continued to feel a dip in his Spanish GP qualifying performance. The seven-time world champion achieved his best time trial result so far this season, ending the loss to teammate George Russell.
In fact, Hamilton will start a Grand Prix ahead of his teammate for the first time since the Japanese GP in early April. Russell’s dominance often left Hamilton behind. After qualifying in Monaco, Hamilton even admitted that he believed he would not overtake Russell at the end of 2024.
Why does Hamilton lose his performance in the time trial?
Hamilton proved himself with a strong lap in Barcelona and finished third. However, the Brit believes that it could have been more based on his practical experience.
“I still feel that I lost my performance in qualifying, but I definitely feel that it was a little more. When you start pushing the car, you don’t like it, so in practice, if you leave a little margin, the car feels pretty nice. But if you really start relying on it to get that extra skin, we have a real problem,” Hamilton said in Spain.
“I think it’s all about the tires. In FP1 I was seven tenths down with a tire problem, we fixed that and I’m a bit on the back foot. Otherwise, the car is in good condition. It’s the best qualifying I’ve had this year, so I’m very grateful for that.
Hamilton won the second free practice, but finished more than three tenths behind Norris on pole. Max Verstappen had a similar distinction. Hamilton does not believe that pole position would have been possible, but he has high expectations for future innovations from Mercedes. “Probably it could be two tenths, but they still have a small advantage.
Being so close on the track shows that very well. We are moving in the right direction. We have some improvements we need to make over the next few races to be within reach of these guys,” added Hamilton.
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