Montreal: Lewis Hamilton said the huge change he made to his routine ahead of this weekend has been a catalyst for his best F1 qualifying session of the year so far after fifth in Sprint Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.
Ahead of the weekend the seven-time World Champion revealed he would not be using Ferrari’s simulator and would be focussing on in depth data analysis and setup work with engineers. That plan seemed to immediately reap rewards in Montreal, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where Hamilton comfortably outqualified teammate Charles Leclerc for the first time since the Chinese Grand Prix earlier in the season.
“It was probably our best Qualifying session that we’ve had in a while,” Hamilton said after claiming P5 on the sprint grid. “It’s great work with the engineers on the set-up changes; the car has felt really fantastic from FP1 and we’ve done some subtle changes for Quali.”
The Briton ran well throughout both SQ1 and SQ2 but eventually ended up trailing the Mercedes-Benz and McLaren runners.
“SQ1 and SQ2 were looking good, and then I don’t know what’s happening for the others to be able to turn up their cars a little bit more, I don’t know,” he said. “ I am just happy to be able to be in the fight. I’ve had so much fun out there today. It’s also nice that I’ve not been using the sim and this is what the feeling feels like so I think for me that is the direction to go.” Agencies
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