Lewis Hamilton hoped to be “closer” to the leaders

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) will start 4th in the French Grand Prix in Formula 1, this Sunday at the Paul-Ricard circuit. The seven-time world champion, like his teammate George Russell (6th) has never been able to compete on the front row, and even less pole position for Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), to whom he is relegated to almost a second. The performance gap between Ferrari F1-75 of the Monegasque and the Mercedes W13 left Lewis Hamilton perplexed. “ Of course, we hoped to be closer than we are. I thought that, if we improved by around a tenth of a second, we would only be two tenths behind (on the leaders. Editor's note). Ultimately, it's a second. And I can't really explain it.« 

Nevertheless, Lewis Hamilton was satisfied with his qualifying performance this Saturday. “ I'm really happy with where I took the car, considering I didn't compete in FP1 (he was replaced by Nyck de Vries. Editor’s note). My last qualifying lap was good, but it was light years behind those of the leaders. » With such a gap, the Briton cannot imagine competing for victory at Charles Leclerc ou Max Verstappen tomorrow at the Paul-Ricard circuit, for what will be his 300th Grand Prix start. “ They are in another division. We have to accept that we are not fighting in the same category in terms of performance, but I can also get a good start and fight with Sergio Pérez (3rd).« 

His teammate George Russell, beaten by Lando Norris (McLaren, 5th) in the timed lap exercise, gave himself the same objective: to battle with the Mexican driver. “ We have the opportunity to battle with Checo. Max (Verstappen) and Charles (Leclerc) are a step above so we may not see much of them, but Lewis and I will be aiming for 3rd place. » Fortunately for Mercedes, the Grands Prix are more satisfying than the qualifying sessions. Will we see this pattern again on Sunday at the Paul-Ricard circuit? “ We need to understand why our race pace is relatively better than that of the qualifiers, underlines George Russell. We are the only team on the grid in this scenario. But in the end, we all prefer to be faster in the race than in qualifying. However, it is important to qualify well to have the opportunities to fight on Sunday. Lando (Norris) starts right in front of me, I hope I won't be held back for very long!«