Ferrari has confirmed the spin which put Lewis Hamilton out in the first round of qualifying for the sprint race was not caused by a problem on his car.
Hamilton will start tomorrow’s race from 18th on the grid after he spun out at the end of his final flying lap in the first part of qualifying.
His Ferrari snapped out of control suddenly as he arrived at the braking zone for the chicane at the end of the lap. Afterwards Hamilton was reluctant to explain what had gone wrong but said he had never experienced such a moment in his career before.
Hamilton did two flying laps in SQ1. His first lap was his fastest, despite a significant mistake heading into Stavelot where Andrea Kimi Antonelli had gone off moments earlier. On his second run he was on course to improve his lap time by three tenths of a second before he spun in the final sector.
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur cleared up any doubt over the cause of the spin, confirming Hamilton had simply made a mistake.
“Lewis was a bit unlucky on his first lap in which he was faster than Charles but then he came to turns 14-15 [Stavelot] and nearly lost the car shortly after Antonelli spun there,” said Vasseur. “On his second attempt he locked the rear and lost control, and in sprint qualifying you pay the price.”
Hamilton’s team mate Charles Leclerc set a 1’42.763 on his first run which ensured he made the cut by almost half a second. Hamilton was slightly quicker than him through the first sector.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free
“Charles did a solid job today,” said Vasseur. “His lap was strong and we are close to Norris and Verstappen, which shows that we’ve made a step in the right direction and we can be pleased with where we are.”
Ferrari has introduced an upgrade to its car’s rear suspension this weekend but Vasseur said they were only able to gain limited data on its performance so far. “We only completed a few laps but so far the data we are seeing matches our expectations, which is always positive,” he said.
“Of course, we would have preferred to have both cars starting further ahead, as that helps with data gathering and tyre management, especially in a sprint weekend. Nobody was able to try any long runs so we will use tomorrow’s race to get a better picture.”
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2025 Belgian Grand Prix
Browse all 2025 Belgian Grand Prix articles