Lewis Hamilton’s last competition weekends did not go well. George Russell regularly beat him, so qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix may seem like an anomaly. The more experienced of the pair of silver arrow riders does not see it that way. He talks about getting back to normal.
A difference of 0.242 seconds on the circuit in Suzuka cannot be considered small. With such a lead, Lewis Hamilton won the Mercedes internal qualifying duel. After Saturday, he certainly breathed a sigh of relief, and his fans, who gradually got used to the fact that the W15 single-seater behaves like April weather, were also relieved, and this is also reflected in the statements of the seven-time world champion.
Lewis Hamilton he attributes this good result to better pre-weekend preparation and the absence of chaos in the Mercedes garage. “The team has done a great job over the last week in terms of understanding the single-seater and setting changes. This is the first weekend I haven’t tried anything crazy with the settings. I don’t test a bunch of stuff so I’m back to normal a bit. I think we managed to get this car into a much better working window.”
He didn’t need that much. As in the case of any driver, it was enough for Hamilton to set up the car better to show his talent and experience. At least for a few days, he will silence his haters who have already written him off.
He wants to build on this weekend with Mercedes. “I know exactly where our car is not good enough. I can feel it in the monopost. Now I can tell them: Work in this particular area. I hope we will be stronger in the race. I’ve really enjoyed the ride so far.”
All that was missing was a reward in the form of a better than seventh place. “I enjoyed driving every round. Only those guys are a bit faster… I think last year we lost more than a second to Red Bull. Being seven tenths behind is better. If we had done something a little differently, maybe we could have been a tenth faster. Perhaps. Other than that, that was it.”
If Lewis Hamilton had really managed to find the aforementioned tenth, he could easily have jumped over Sainz, Alonso and Piastri and started from the fourth place on Sunday. It may not have worked out this time, but it seems that they could already find the right direction in Mercedes.
“I personally believe it,” he nodded Hamilton. “On various circuits, we noticed that it is very difficult to hit the right settings. We were always far away. In some places, we felt that no matter what we did, we couldn’t get the car into the perfect window. This weekend the car was in a much better window. I hope it will be repeated at the next big awards. We just have to increase the performance.”
2024-04-07 10:41:42
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