Hamilton Issues Surprising Verdict On Where Mercedes Would Be In Dry Qualifying

Saturday, 27 July 2024 at 22:00

Lewis Hamilton shared how grateful he was for a wet qualifying in Belgium, as he didn't think Mercedes would have ranked nearly as well as they did.

The Mercedes F1 team brought a new floor to the 2024 Belgium Grand Prix weekend. However, it didn't work as hoped, and after a tough Friday, the German team decided to fit their cars with the old-spec floors.

Nobody knew how the team would perform in qualifying, as there wasn't much running in FP3, but ultimately, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell scored P4 and P7, respectively.

Both drivers will move up one position ahead of the race, as Max Verstappen, who scored a pole, will be hit with a ten-place grid penalty and start the race from P11.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the qualifying, the seven-time World Champion suggested the rain saved Mercedes this time, as he issued a surprising verdict on Mercedes's pace in dry conditions.

“"When it rained then I knew that we would have a chance of being at the front because those are my preferred conditions."”

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“"I think if it was dry, we would have been struggling to be in the top 10, I imagine - it would have been tough."”

While he wasn't disappointed with the final P4, the seven-time World Champion thought that even a front row might have been possible had he saved one more set of new intermediate tires for the final part of qualifying.

“"I think if I'd had another set, I would have been fighting for the front row."”

The team principal of Mercedes, Toto Wolff, agreed with his driver. He went as far as to suggest that Hamilton could have started the race even from pole had they chosen riskier strategy like Charles Leclerc.

“"The pace was good. We were out early and chose the conservative route. We could probably have started from pole position if we had done what Leclerc did, namely gambled on it being dry at the end, which worked out for him."”