Hamilton frustrated as ‘career first’ leads to early Sprint Qualifying exit in Belgium

Lewis Hamilton was left visibly frustrated after qualifying in 18th place for Saturday’s Sprint in Belgium following a session-ending spin.

While Ferrari brought a significant upgrade package to Spa-Francorchamps, seven-time champion Hamilton was unable to feel the benefits on Friday, shaking his head when asked if the new suspension had made the SF-25 more drivable.

An error on his opening lap of SQ1 had left the Briton with work to do on his final effort, but a spin at the final chicane as the chequered flag fell sealed his position on the penultimate row.

Asked what had happened in the session, Hamilton said simply: “I spun.”

Pressed on whether rear locking had caused the incident, he added: “Yeah. The first time in my career.”

Attempting to find some form of positivity, Hamilton reflected: “Tomorrow’s a new day. Obviously, I’m massively frustrated. A lot of work has gone in and to be there is not great. Hopefully, tomorrow is going to be better.”

On the other side of the garage, Charles Leclerc positioned his Ferrari on the second row of the grid, although the 0.768s margin to pole left him with conflicting emotions.

“The feeling was pretty good which, to me, it’s a mixed feeling,” said Leclerc. “On one side, I’m happy that the car feels better and, on the other, even if the car feels pretty good, we are still seven tenths off, which is a huge amount of time.

“Yes, it’s a long track, but it’s still a big amount of time. So there is a lot of work to be done.

"We just need to add grip to this car at the end of the day. I don’t think we do anything particularly wrong, but we just need more grip that we don’t seem to have for now.”