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Lewis Hamilton will start the French Grand Prix from fourth place. The Briton is satisfied with the lap, but still faces a deficit of almost one second. Teammate George Russell got no further than sixth place.
Prior to the weekend Mercedes focused on a good result in France. The expectation was that the German team might be able to rise above itself. For this, the asphalt, which lies like a billiard cloth and the included updates, were designated as the main reason. However, during qualifying it turned out that the gap with Ferrari in Red Bull Racing is still significant.
Qualification
Hamilton is still quite satisfied with his own lap. “It actually felt pretty good and I was quite happy with my lap, because it looked good,” the Briton opens. Still, he has to face reality: “But I’m still almost a second behind. Somehow we are a little further away from it this weekend.” Ferrari and Red Bull can only challenge each other, the rest of the teams simply lack some speed. “The two top teams are in their own league. But even though I missed the first free practice, which has more impact than you think, I’m happy with the progress made. We took a step back this morning and in qualifying we put it right again,” he explains.
Experiment
Mercedes is still looking for pure speed and Hamilton reveals that he is trying all kinds of different things. “George drove the same car all weekend. But I started the weekend with a small rear wing and then moved on to a slightly larger one, so basically I’ve been experimenting all weekend. The setup also went in all directions, but luckily I had well in qualifying, but we lose a lot on the straight,” says the seven-time champion. Despite the fact that the result is not yet there, Hamilton does not give up. “It’s not really frustrating, but I’m rather surprised. Yes, then there is nothing more I can do about it. And every weekend we come up with a few small things to improve and sometimes it doesn’t work,” he concludes.
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