Lewis Hamilton lamented an “unacceptable” error in qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday as Lando Norris turned the tables on teammate Oscar Piastri to take pole position.
Norris, who trails Piastri by nine points in the world championship, was a step behind the Australian in sprint qualifying on Friday but turned his fortunes around, setting a time which edged out his teammate by 0.085 seconds.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc came home a surprise third in qualifying ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who won the sprint race earlier on Saturday.
But as for Leclerc’s teammate Hamilton, a day on from qualifying third-last for the sprint race, it was another disastrous session for the Ferrari driver.
The seven-time world champion arrived here at Spa upbeat, with a new rear suspension upgrade on the under-par SF-25 car, as he looked to claim his first podium of the season.
But after a spin at the final chicane put him P18 and rendered his sprint race irrelevant – though the spin was put down to a mechanical error – Hamilton himself this time made a costly error at the top of the famous Eau Rouge corner.
The Briton looked to have saved himself with a time quick enough for the top-15, before communication came from the FIA stewards that Hamilton had exceeded track limits at the top of Eau Rouge corner, marginally placing all four wheels outside the white lines.
As a result, his lap was deleted and, staggeringly, the 40-year-old was knocked out in Q1 again. He will start Sunday’s grand prix in 16th place.
“Not great, from my side I made a mistake,” a despondent Hamilton said in the media pen afterwards.
“We have to look internally. I have to apologise to my team, it’s unacceptable to be out in both Q1s, a very poor performance from myself.
“I don’t think there’s much we can do. Everyone is trying to do the best we can, we’ve had upgrades, but I think that’s it for the rest of the year.”
Just after the halfway mark of the season, and trailing championship leader Piastri by a mammoth 138 points, Hamilton then effectively wrote off the rest of the campaign as the majority of teams shift their focus to new engine and chassis regulations next year.
“I think the focus back at the factory is to focus on next year’s car,” he said. “This season has been a tricky one.”
A wet race on Sunday – with rain probability currently standing at 60% – is Hamilton’s only saving grace. The seven-time world champion finished fourth in the wet-dry drama of Silverstone three weeks ago and won an entertaining race last year at Spa.
However, despite all the clamour and hype surrounding his move to Ferrari, it seems the Scuderia’s final set of upgrades this season have not provided the silver bullet many hoped would propel Hamilton back into contention at the top.
Instead, it continues to be the team Hamilton made his F1 debut for, McLaren, who set the pace out in front. Norris, who is half Belgian, is on a run of two consecutive victories and impressively kept his cool in the heat of battle on Saturday afternoon.
While Norris, second time around, did not go faster than his first lap in Q3, Piastri could not claw back the deficit enough and, to the delight of Norris’s Belgian mother Cisca in the garage, could only manage second place.
The Australian would later reveal an error into turn 14, in his view, cost him pole.
“It was a decent lap,” Norris said, before a pointed statement to the doubters. “Everyone was pretty worried after yesterday, but I was confident going into today.
“It was nothing to worry about, people like to make a lot of things up. The car is flying a lot.”
Piastri, however, will be looking to follow Verstappen’s blueprint from earlier on Saturday to steal a march on his teammate at the start tomorrow. The short run down to turn one at Spa favours second place – on the inside line – and the lengthy run up the hill to the Kemmel Straight also provides another opening for cars behind with a healthy slipstream.
That being said, wet conditions would likely shake up the status quo. Hamilton will need some favours from above if he is to salvage anything from what, he admitted himself, has been a “weekend to forget” thus far.
