Lewis Hamilton admits Mercedes F1 car “felt completely different” in Belgian GP practice

Lewis Hamilton has revealed his Mercedes F1 car “felt completely different” in Friday practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Hamilton only managed the 10th-fastest team in second practice at Spa-Francorchamps, over 1.2s off the pace set by McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Mercedes teammate George Russell fared slightly better, setting the sixth-best time of the day.

Mercedes were confident going into the weekend that Spa would suit their car.

The track layout tends to favour aero efficiency and straight-line speed - and given their performance at Silverstone - Mercedes were expecting to be on the pace.

So far at least, it’s not been comfortable for the seven-time world champion.

“Yeah. I don’t really know what to say,” Hamilton said. “Obviously it’s been feeling great the past couple of races, and it just felt completely different today. 

“So, we worked on it. The first session was not great. But then in the second session, we made some changes.

“It started off great, and then when I got to the soft tire, I just couldn’t improve, and there were a bunch of balance issues. It was better in this session, but everyone else went even better. So to be 1.2 seconds behind is not great.”

The weather forecast in Belgium is volatile with rain expected on Saturday for qualifying, although Sunday’s race is expected to be dry.

Hamilton believes Mercedes are likely to be more competitive if it rains.

He qualified second in sprint qualifying in China which was wet, while his only win of the year was in changeable conditions.

“If it’s dry, then we’re not, at the moment, going to be in the best of places,” he added.

“But overnight we can make some changes for sure. I think if it rains, that opens it up a little bit.

“Hopefully we can do a better job. I think the car should be better in the wet than it is in the dry.”