Belgian GP: Lewis Hamilton ready for ‘hell of a fight’ in expected dry race after major Mercedes changes

Lewis Hamilton feels he will have to put up a “hell of a fight” in the Belgian Grand Prix if he is to maintain the podium position he qualified in during Saturday’s rain-hit running at Spa-Francorchamps.

Hamilton got the wet weather he had been left hoping for after a “pretty bad” Friday of running for Mercedes and their upgraded car in Friday’s two dry practice sessions.

The seven-time world champion, one of F1’s most-renowned wet-weather specialists, duly made good use of the tricky conditions by qualifying third on Sunday’s grid behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

However, dry conditions are forecast to return for race day and with the two McLarens – who had been the quickest cars in Friday’s running – starting directly behind him, and qualifying pacesetter Max Verstappen poised to come back through the field from a penalised 11th, Hamilton suspects he will have his work cut out to stay where he is.

The four-time Belgian GP victor is though, as ever, up for the challenge amid what is proving his best run of form of the season.

“The Red Bulls are much quicker than us here and the McLarens are much quicker than us here,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.

“The Ferraris, I think, are there or thereabouts with us.

“Obviously, Max is going to make his way through because I think they are the quickest this weekend.

“So holding on to the podium is going to be a hell of a fight – but I’m ready for it.”

Car changes mean Mercedes ‘don’t know where we’ll stack up on race pace’

The mixed-up results of wet qualifying appear to have set up a thrilling 44-lap race, which is live on Sky Sports F1 at 2pm on Sunday.

Verstappen absolutely dominated wet qualifying – topping the Q3 timesheet by a whopping 0.6s margin – and also looked among the front-runners in the dry on Friday, but the Red Bull championship leader will start from the sixth row owing to a 10-place penalty for the use of a fifth engine this season.

Leclerc may be on an inherited pole after an impressive final lap put him second behind Verstappen on the Q3 timesheet, but Ferrari had again not looked anywhere near as competitive in Friday’s dry conditions.

Mercedes, who start third with Hamilton and sixth with George Russell, have also admitted they go into the race not quite knowing how their W15 will fare for long-run pace after making major changes to its set-up overnight – revisions which included removing the new-spec floor that debuted on the car on Friday.

Andrew Shovlin, the team’s trackside engineering director, said: “We weren’t happy with the balance or pace of the car [on Friday], so we made some fairly major changes to the mechanical and aero specification of the car overnight.

“We’d hoped for a dry window in FP3 to evaluate those, but unfortunately it stayed wet throughout and there was no chance to accumulate any meaningful running.

“We don’t know where we will stack up on race pace, as the car is quite different to the one we ran in the dry. Starting from P3 and P6 though, we are hopefully well placed to fight for a podium.”

Hamilton: Mercedes could have been on front row

Significantly stronger in the wet, Hamilton felt he could ultimately have been at least one place higher than third too had the decisive Q3 session worked out differently.

Mercedes had just one set of new intermediates left for their cars in the final phase and, with the weather difficult to call absolutely accurately, they fuelled their cars for the whole final session but lucked out on timing with the driest conditions occurring right at the end, when Leclerc was on new tyres and jumped up the order.

Hamilton finished 0.070s back on second-placed Perez and 0.081s away from Leclerc on pole.

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

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

“Timing was everything, getting out on track at the right point. I think we were a little bit too early at the end, we were first out, and that’s when we used our new tyres, and then we didn’t have any new tyres until the end and the three guys ahead did.

“So a little bit unfortunate in that respect but that’s the way it is. But I’m grateful to be up there.

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

Russell explains why Mercedes changed back to old floor

For just the fourth time in 14 races this season, although second time in consecutive weeks, Russell was outqualified by Hamilton with the younger Briton lapping 0.349s slower in Q3.

Russell explained after the session why Mercedes has reverted to the floor they were running in Hungary.

“We just wanted to double check,” he told Sky Sports F1. “We did the Friday on the new floor, going back for the race on Sunday and see where the pace falls out, because in F1 the fluctuation of pace from circuit to circuit is massive.

“[Friday] wasn’t a great day for us and we just want to double check that it wasn’t the upgrades. I’m pretty confident it isn’t because we have definitely not really struggled in the last 12 months when we have brought upgrades, they have generally worked.

“It will just give us more time to assess the new floor.”

Sky Sports F1’s live Belgian GP schedule

Sunday July 28
7:25am: F3 Feature Race
8.55am: F2 Feature Race
10.40am: Porsche Supercup
12:30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Belgian GP build-up*
2pm: The BELGIAN GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Chequered Flag: Belgian GP reaction
5pm: Ted’s Notebook

*also live on Sky Sports Main Event

The Formula 1 action continues this weekend with the final race before F1’s summer break, the Belgian Grand Prix at 2pm on Sunday. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime