Lewis Hamilton: “Nine qualifying laps”

In view of the different tire strategy between Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), in soft tires, and Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) on ultra-soft tires, when restarting the race around ten laps from the finish in Belgium, we thought the German driver would be capable of overtaking the Briton after the safety car re-entered, following a collision between the Force IndiaEsteban Ocon and Sergio Pérez.

If the No. 70 Ferrari SF5H was very pressing in the Raidillon de l'Eau Rouge and in the Kemmel straight, the absence of DRS, combined with the power of the Mercedes V6 turbo/hybrid Power Unit, was enough. to keep Hamilton ahead of his championship rival.

From then on, the three-time world champion worked to develop to the maximum of his abilities. « The final nine rounds were qualifying rounds, comments Hamilton after the finish. Each round was a qualifying round. We had to work hard to keep the Ferrari behind. He had better tires, which warmed up more quickly. He was really close in the first phase. »

Hamilton also believes he benefited from a slightly more aerodynamic W08, which allowed him to hold off Vettel when braking at Les Combes.

« I had a relatively decent exit from turn 1, but he got back on the gas before me. I could hear it. So he was in a much more comfortable position but luckily once he came out of my slipstream we were both in the same air and, I think maybe we have a little less aero load and it worked in this scenario. »

The Briton also gave a fairly clear opinion on the length of the safety car intervention. « It was a bit like Nascar, where they take out the safety cars for no reason.

The spoiler was removed, after slowing down they could have deployed a virtual safety car, but I think they wanted to see a race, that's why they did that, as there was virtually no debris, as they had cleaned up well. »

Discover the full report and analysis of the Belgian Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents in Spa, in issue 2129 of AUTOhebdo, available tomorrow evening in digital version, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.