Lewis Hamilton revealed he lost several tenths of a second due to a deployment issue early in Q3, with braking also “inconsistent” behind the wheel of his Ferrari.
After taking Sprint pole on Friday, Hamilton will line up third for the British Grand Prix on Sunday having lapped around eight hundredths slower than he managed for his Sprint pole time.
Lewis Hamilton reveals ‘inconsistent’ braking during British GP qualifying
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Kimi Antonelli took pole position just hours after passing Hamilton on track in Saturday’s Sprint for victory there, and while the seven-time world champion remained in the mix for the front row, Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc returned to form to start second come Sunday.
While Hamilton acknowledged such issues were not the end of the world from his perspective, an inconsistent brake pedal combined with deployment issues to make for a not-quite smooth session on his side of the Ferrari garage.
Asked if he felt there was more lap time on the table in Q3, Hamilton replied: “No, not particularly.
“I think in run two – actually, my run two was pretty decent, but I had a massive… I lost my deployment. There was a problem with the deployment, basically, and I lost three tenths down the back straight, but that got fixed for towards the end.
“I just struggled more in this qualifying session with the car, a lot more understeer, but I’m still happy to be up here.”
Pressed on whether or not those issues were why his Q3 time was not as fast as his Sprint pole time on Friday, he confirmed: “Yeah, those two [issues] and then braking, for example, for turn three [Village].
“Kimi wasn’t talking about it, but that was quite inconsistent for me today with the settings that we ended up choosing, but yeah, happy to see both Charles and I up here.”
Hamilton is attempting to take a record-breaking 10th victory at the same event on Sunday – which also happens to be his home grand prix.
Looking ahead to the British Grand Prix
Antonelli beats Hamilton to Silverstone Sprint victory after decisive pass
F1 starting grid: Antonelli pips Leclerc and Hamilton to British GP pole
However, after the pace Antonelli showed in the 17 laps around Silverstone earlier on Saturday, he is not holding out too much hope for a return to the top step at the end of the weekend.
“We couldn’t [beat Antonelli] this morning, so I don’t think that really changes, and he’s just gone way quicker than I went yesterday, so nothing’s changed between this morning and nothing will change between today and tomorrow,” Hamilton added.
“We’ll do our best to hold on to them, but ultimately he’s if he gets a clean run, he’ll be gone.”
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Originally published by Planet F1 —
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