– Just two weeks after Lewis Hamilton was able to celebrate his first podium with Ferrari at the Chinese Grand Prix, the record world champion experienced another setback at the race in Japan: Hamilton only finished sixth in Suzuka, while teammate Leclerc stood on the podium.
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A result that was “ultimately pretty lousy,” “because I was in third place and then fell back,” summarizes the Ferrari driver, who once again engaged in a tough duel with his teammate. In the end, however, Hamilton crossed the finish line ten seconds behind Leclerc.
And for this gap, the Briton has an explanation: His Ferrari engine was apparently not as powerful as Leclerc’s power unit. “I just need to understand where the loss of performance came from,” Hamilton says clearly in an interview with Sky UK. Because so far, he hasn’t found a reason for it.
“I lacked power especially in the second stint, but actually throughout the whole race, even from the start, I couldn’t keep up because of the lack of power.” The Ferrari driver started from sixth place but, unlike in the first two races of the year, was unable to improve at the start.
Hamilton at a loss: “I really don’t understand it”
The fact that Hamilton found himself in third place at times and thus within reach of the podium was thanks to the safety car phase after Oliver Bearman’s heavy accident, which he used for his pit stop and was therefore able to push past the competition, at least temporarily.
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But unlike Leclerc, who used his energy management perfectly to hold his own against Mercedes driver George Russell in the final phase, Hamilton was completely without a chance and was dropped back to sixth place in the second half of the race.
“I really don’t understand it. I’m going full throttle and driving exactly where I’m supposed to, and for some reason, I’m just lacking power,” reports the 41-year-old, who wants to use the long break until the Miami Grand Prix to find an explanation for it.
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“I have to find out if something is wrong with the car or not,” Hamilton apparently doesn’t want to rule out that he simply didn’t master the energy management as well as his teammate. “But at least we got a few points.”
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