‘Gives me hope’ – Lewis Hamilton optimistic despite Mercedes struggles at Belgian GP practice sessions

Lewis Hamilton was not giving up at the Belgian Grand Prix despite a poor showing in practice on Friday.

In the second session, Hamilton was sixth fastest in his 300th race weekend, which might give him a chance at a podium given Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen – both quicker than him – start with grid penalties on Sunday.

However, the team were still well off the pace, and Hamilton had no answer.

“We’re just not very quick. I don’t know why,” he admitted.

“I really don’t know. We’re going out there and giving it everything we’ve got. It could be tyres, it could be tyre temps, it could be a multitude of things.

“It doesn’t feel disastrous out there, we’re just a long way off. We often find this on the Friday, and then things change a little bit more on Saturday so I hope that’s the case.”

Hamilton did see reasons for optimism though, as one of the teams not to take any grid penalties, and with hopes that performance improves over the weekend.

He said: “Everyone’s at risk but at the moment we’re not taking any penalties, so the team have done a great job on that.

“So we’ve just got to analyse this data and see where we can get with this car. It doesn’t feel the same as it did on the last track, like in qualifying, like on Friday-Saturday morning it feels similar. So that gives me hope we can turn it round.”