Hamilton got his settings wrong

Beaten on a regular basis by his teammate Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), Lewis Hamilton will still start from a comfortable second place on the starting grid for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Briton admits, he was not as efficient as the Finn on Saturday.

“I have to congratulate Valtteri, he did an exceptional job throughout the qualifying session”, explained Lewis Hamilton at a press conference. “It’s great to see him performing so well, especially at the end of the year. This puts him in a good situation for 2018”, analyzes the four-time world champion, who knows a thing or two about human management with his teammates in F1.

Author of the best times at the end of free practice sessions 2 and 3, Lewis Hamilton decided to go into detail about the settings before qualifying. “I had a good session on Saturday morning, then decided to make a few changes in anticipation of the track temperature dropping. In hindsight, it was not the right solution. But it was nice to try something different, to experiment, which I never really did this season. So I tested this setting, then I had some difficulty with the balance of the car. »

The Mercedes driver admits that he had to fight with his car. “In Free Practice 3, I was so much more comfortable in the car. In qualifying, that was no longer the case, I really had to give everything. Regardless, it was fun to battle for pole like that. Here, it is very complicated to overtake, there are two opportunities on the circuit but I will try to give the best of myself. »