Five-time world champion could have fought for pole position at Silverstone, but a fifth-place finish left Hamilton devastated in front of a crowd that cheered for him too much
Lewis Hamilton had a very interesting performance in the qualifying of the British GP, held this Saturday (2) at Silverstone. The fifth place, just over 1s behind the pole-position, Carlos Sainz, puts the Mercedes team in the place it has become usual during the season: as the third force of the grid.
The seven-time world champion admitted the improvement of the W13, but also knows that the wet track gave a gas to the car's performance in qualifying. "We brought some new parts, but it wasn't necessarily an upgrade. But for me it's clear that we would never be able to compete for a top-three finish in the dry."
Lewis was keen to show the differences in the car's performance in dry and wet track conditions. "In the rain, we're not as fast in the uphill corners. In the dry you get more speed and as a result we jump more, and that's bad," he said.
Although he did fight for pole in his home race, Hamilton ended qualifying rather upset for not giving his fans a great performance. "I'm devastated. There are a lot of people rooting for me, I worked hard to get on the front row, but finishing fifth makes tomorrow's race very difficult."
Lewis, finally, drew a parallel of Mercedes' paces between free practice and qualifying, and now he is picking up the pieces in the hope of achieving a good result on Sunday (3). "We were a little better on Friday than on Saturday, which seems to be the case because you go slower into the corners with the wet track. Tomorrow will be difficult, but I want to look forward and work, I know I have an amazing car," added the Englishman.
GRANDE PRÊMIO follows LIVE and INREAL TIME all the activities of the British GP weekend. On Sunday, the start is scheduled for 11:00 am (GMT-3).