Hamilton loses pole at Silverstone: The error that frustrated the Ferrari driver

SILVERSTONE, England – Lewis Hamilton revealed that his aspirations of securing pole position at the British Grand Prix vanished at Silverstone’s Vale corner, where his Ferrari suffered understeer. The seven-time champion will start fifth on the grid in his home race on Sunday. Hamilton was 0.203 seconds behind Max Verstappen, who took pole position. Hamilton seemed on his way to his first pole position with Ferrari until the final sector of the lap, where he lost time compared to the four cars that qualified ahead of him.

I had understeer in turn 16. That cost me the time I had. It probably cost me at least second place.

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton explained that understeer is a common characteristic of the Ferrari in low-speed corners, and it is accentuated when he pushes the car to the limit in qualifying.

In the end we have understeer at low speed, something inherent to this car. I think we are overdriving to get that extra time.

Lewis Hamilton

The driver added that the car is not as fast as current cars.

We need a little more performance.

Lewis Hamilton

However, Hamilton highlighted the progress made with the Ferrari in recent races, pointing to an improvement in the floor at the Austrian Grand Prix the previous weekend as one of the reasons.

We are progressing. There’s still more to do, but obviously we had the update in the last race. We are improving our process, the way we approach our weekends. I definitely feel like we are getting better results. So we have to keep pushing.

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton’s teammate, Charles Leclerc, will start alongside him on the grid, in sixth place for Sunday’s race. Leclerc said he blamed himself for the result and that “I need to improve.”