SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium, CMC – Lewis Hamilton will need a huge effort in order to come away with anything from today’s Belgian Grand Prix.
The Brit, whose paternal grandparents are Grenadian, clocked one minute, 48.394 seconds to finish seventh in qualifying yesterday, leaving him down on the fourth row.
His McLaren teammate Jenson Button had no such problems, however, taking pole in 1:47.573. He will share front row with Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi.
A disappointed Hamilton blamed a wrong choice of rear wing for his sluggish qualifying run. “Today was a bit of a disappointment but, since I’m still in the top 10. Tomorrow will be about trying to make the most of things,” he lamented.
“The set-up wasn’t perfect, but that was simply because we chose the wrong rear wing, preferring to stay with the version we used in Hungary.
“It was a collective choice. We thought the older wing would be quicker in qualifying, but in fact Jenson has shown the new wing to be very good indeed. Our side of the garage was a bit unlucky, but we’ll do what we can with what we have tomorrow.”
Hamilton is coming off a win at Hungary in the last Formula One event, which led into the month-long season break.
That win was his second of the season following his triumph in Montreal and he now lies fourth on 117 points, still within striking distance of leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari who has 164 points.
Hamilton has only won once at Spa – back in 2010 when he qualified second.
Yesterday, Williams’ Pastor Maldonado snatched a share of the second row ahead of Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen.
Alonso will start from the third row while reigning World champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull qualified tenth.
