Hamilton Hoping for Wet Qualifying after Tricky Friday

Lewis Hamilton is hoping for a wet qualifying at Spa Francorchamps as he believes the W15 performs better in difficult conditions.

Hamilton wasn’t too pleased after Free Practice One and Free Practice Two with how the car was performing. The seven time world champion was fifth in the first hour of practice, tenth in the second and also found himself behind his teammate, George Russell, in both sessions.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team have been looking much improved lately, winning two of the last three races at Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring, but their pace at the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix so far isn’t looking likely to challenge Oracle Red Bull Racing and McLaren F1 Team.

Speaking to F1TV, Hamilton said: “It’s a pretty bad day, I don’t really know what to say! It’s been feeling great in the past couple of races, it just felt completely different today. 

“We worked on it , the first session was not great but then in the second session, it started off great but when we got onto the soft tyre it just didn’t improve. There was a bunch of balance issues we had through the lap but it was better in FP2 but everyone else just went better. To be 1.2 seconds behind isn’t great.”

Rain is forecasted for Saturday throughout Free Practice Three and qualifying and although the weather is never certain at Spa, Hamilton is hoping for wet conditions as he believes it could open up a few options for the Brackley based squad.

“If it’s try – at the moment – we won’t be in the greatest of places but we can make some changes overnight for sure. If it rains that opens it up a little bit and we can do a better, the car should be better in the wet.”