Hamilton vows to do a better job next weekend after recovery drive at Spa
On the back of an up-and-down weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has promised that he will "try and do a better job for" Ferrari next weekend.
Ferrari endured an up-and-down weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. While Charles Leclerc delivered an absolutely faultless performance all weekend long, his team-mate Lewis Hamilton struggled to put together his laps in both the sprint and standard qualifying session.
The Monégasque started from P3 on the grid, and managed to maintain this spot in the tricky, damp conditions, fending of the attacks of Max Verstappen whose Red Bull was arguably more competitive in the early stages of the 44-lap race.
Leclerc then pitted at the right time, and never lost his concentration, keeping Verstappen at bay despite enormous pressure from the reigning champion.
His team-mate Hamilton started from P18 following a tough qualifying session on Saturday. The Briton was excellent in the damp conditions, picking off five drivers in the opening stages of the race.
The seven-time world champion pitted at absolutely perfect time, gaining a lot thanks to his early stop. He then went on to close in on Alex Albon, but with his aerodynamic configuration he was unable to make any further progress.
Still, it was one of the most successful race weekends with Ferrari for Hamilton, and his sensational comeback drive also saw him earn the title of "Driver of the Day".
Speaking of the tricky conditions, Hamilton said: "I always enjoy those sort of conditions. It was massively tricky being that far back in conditions where at the beginning it was really not that easy to see.
"Then we had the rolling start which, I don't think they needed to do a rolling start, I don't really now why they did that one because it had dried up quite a lot and the spray wasn't that bad.
"But anyways, I'm happy to have come from all the way back there, recovered and got into the points," Hamilton added. "Not the result that I want this weekend, and definitely a weekend to forget, but positives to take from the car today.
"The team did a great job as they always do throughout the weekend and they did a great job with the strategy, so big thanks to them and I'll try and do a better job for them next weekend."
Having struggled to match the performance of team mate Charles Leclerc this season, Hamilton looked to have achieved a vital step in his understanding of his Ferrari F1 car at Spa.
"We got the settings better and definitely as you could see I was catching up, I was feeling more and more confident bit by bit. FP1 and straight into [Sprint] Qualifying with these new brakes definitely caught me out and definitely we'll learn from that."
