As Formula One roars back into life following its summer break, Hamilton has largely been a spectator after his Mercedes team chose to take a penalty – one which has been lingering over the world champion following a series of engine failures in the opening phase of the season – here in Belgium.
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“We talked about maybe doing two different strategies and Max wanted the super-softs and I wanted the softs so it was easy”, he added. “That’s all I can hope for is just to aim as high as possible and get up as high as I can”.
German Nico Rosberg steered clear of the chaos unfolding behind him to cruise to an unchallenged victory in a disrupted Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.
“I understand some of you (Belgian fans) are disappointed and you wanted Verstappen here but he is only young, his time will come”, he said. “I am very happy with it”.
The three-time world champion had been forced to start at the back following a raft of engine changes, but made a sensational charge to not only get himself in among the points, but sat, remarkably, in fifth position.
“The championship has been bouncing a bit in both directions and it is going to go long in the season before we know which way it is going to go”. “In any case, I’m pleased with my qualifying and looking forward to tomorrow”.
Hamilton also explained the reasoning behind taking the penalties for Spa rather than Monza, revealing Mercedes were unconvinced his existing would last the weekend. “So to come away with the points that we have today, I’m extremely proud of everyone”.
The session was certainly far from as dominant as Mercedes has been in 2016.
Rosberg started on pole and kept the lead after his main rivals, fellow front-row starter Max Verstappen and the Ferrari pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, collided at the first corner.
“I woke up this morning knowing how hard things were going to be, but you can never predict what is going to happen”.
He knew that Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo had followed him home in second place, but beyond that knew very little of the finishing order. The Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenburg were next, with the top 10 rounded off by Valtteri Bottas, Jenson Button and Felipe Massa.
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McLaren-Honda’s Fernando Alonso, the recipient of his own 35-place grid penalty, was unable to complete a single lap.
