Featured Image Credit: Sky Sports
Topics: Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Formula 1, Fan Reactions, Charles Leclerc
Ryan Smart
Topics: Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Formula 1, Fan Reactions, Charles Leclerc
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton has revealed why he was only able to finish in seventh place at the Japanese Grand Prix in what was a difficult race weekend.
Hamilton qualified in seventh place on Saturday but fell behind Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar on lap one in the race.
The seven-time champion did overtake the Frenchman and, on the hard tyre compared to the medium used by those cars around him, began to close the gap on Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli in sixth.
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His second stint on medium tyres was expected to see him battle with the Italian and potentially move even further up, but he couldn't extract the required performance out of his tyres and ultimately finished over 11 seconds back.
Team-mate Charles Leclerc finished fourth, 13 seconds ahead of Hamilton, but didn't show significant pace either in a race that wasn't exactly one for the archives.
The only solace for Ferrari was that, unlike China, neither driver was disqualified from the race - but the team clearly has work to do to catch McLaren and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
And speaking after the race, Hamilton explained why he has struggled for pace in any of the three full Grands Prix, having won the sprint race in China.
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Hamilton told reporters in Suzuka (via Motorsport.com Italia): "I'm really hoping in the next race we'll see, hopefully, some positive changes.
"Through the first races, there's been a bit of deficit between both sides of the garage on an element of the car. So, on my side, something underperforming. So it's good to know.
"We've got underperformance happening at the rear of the car this weekend, and obviously qualifying position is key."
He expanded on the problem to Sky Sports F1: "I'm losing just over a tenth a lap with the issue we have. I'm hoping in the next race, it's fixed.
"They're aware of it, and they just don't know why. As I said, when the new component comes hopefully it'll be gone, and it'll be the same across both cars. Aside from that, I'm relatively happy with the race pace we had given the problem."
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Reacting to Hamilton's comments on Twitter, one fan wrote: "A tenth won't be enough."
Another said: "He won the sprint despite his car, is that it? It's going to be a long season."
But a third added: "This is reassuring because his race pace was just not making sense."
Hamilton has now picked up 15 points from the first three race weekends, and is five points behind team-mate Leclerc in the Drivers' Championship.
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McLaren's Lando Norris, meanwhile, leads the way with 62 points but is now only one point ahead of Verstappen, who won his first race of the season at Suzuka ahead of Norris and Oscar Piastri.