Hamilton returns to the front in qualifying
After two weeks in which there was a lot of talk about his performance in qualifying, Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona he put on track a Saturday worthy of his golden curriculum, guaranteeing himself a starting from the third box of the starting lineup.
It had been thirteen Sunday races since the Mercedes champion had parked his car at least on the second row (the last time was third place in Austin 2023) and this season in qualifying he had not done better than seventh place – on three occasions.
But the ghosts remain
The rumors about alleged sabotage of Mercedes against Lewis Hamilton had been suggested – between the lines – by the driver himself, between Monte Carlo and Montreal. In fact, the seven-time world champion explained that his car was between FP3 and qualifying he wasn’t improving as much as his rivals and he had also reported problems in the pits getting his tires up to temperature.
Here you are, similar arguments were also suggested by the pilot in the press conference of Saturday reserved for the top3, upon specific request: “I still have the impression that I lost performance compared to free practice once I got to qualifying. Sure there was something more, but as soon as you start pushing, this car doesn’t like it. Practically, if you leave a little margin, the car is fine. But when we really have to push for that little bit more, we really struggle and I think it all depends on the tyres. As you saw then in FP1 I lost seven tenths due to a problem with the tyrewarmers, which we resolved in subsequent sessions. But the car is good and this is my best qualifying of the season.”
