Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Silverstone, 2015

Hamilton honed race set-up in qualifying

2015 British Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Silverstone, 2015Lewis Hamilton revealed he made a change to his car’s set-up during qualifying which he expects will pay off during the race.

After a Hamilton took his eighth pole position of the season so far but said afterwards he also made some tweaks to his car for the race.

“Generally it’s not been the smoothest of weekend,” said Hamilton, who had half a second off team mate Nico Rosberg in second practice, “it’s been a bit up and down in terms of set-up and balance and getting laps.”

“And throughout qualifying I made a change to the car going into qualifying which was perhaps not spectacular for quali lap but hopefully will be good for the race.”

Rosberg was quickest in Q2 but Hamilton’s first run in Q3 proved good enuogh for pole position. “I’m really happy that once I got to Q3 I could just go all out and get that lap in,” he said.

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Keith Collantine
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12 comments on “Hamilton honed race set-up in qualifying”

  1. Profile Photo

    sato113 (@sato113)
    4th July 2015, 15:20

    got the first q3 lap in early which made it more comfortable for his 2nd lap to maybe risk more. well done! let’s hope his start is ok.

  2. Profile Photo

    Simon (@weeniebeenie)
    4th July 2015, 15:48

    “And throughout qualifying I made a change to the car going into qualifying which was perhaps not spectacular for quali lap but hopefully will be good for the race.”

    That makes no sense, It seems like the first three words are the end of another sentence. Plus you can’t change set up once quali starts except small front wing changes.

    1. JeffreyJ
      4th July 2015, 15:59

      Exactly, I think he means prior to qually but after FP3. If he really changed anything other that his front wing, he’d be disqualified I would imagine

    2. Doug SA
      4th July 2015, 18:30

      He explains what he did with the setup to Brundle in this video: http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/24181/9903572/lewis-hamilton-talks-martin-brundle-through-his-british-gp-pole-lap

  3. Profile Photo

    Supremacy (@supremacy)
    4th July 2015, 16:30

    So Lewis has his car setup for the race, yet he beat Nico to Pole.

    1. Profile Photo

      Alec Glen (@alec-glen)
      4th July 2015, 17:14

      That’s certainly what he was telling the man to his right in the press conference…

  4. Pingguest
    4th July 2015, 17:56

    I thought set-up changes during qualifying were banned by the post-qualifying parc fermé.

    1. Profile Photo

      Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
      4th July 2015, 22:06

      Well no because as you say the restriction apply “post-qualifying”, not “during qualifying”.

  5. Profile Photo

    geekracer2000 (@geekracer2000)
    4th July 2015, 18:39

    That lap was horrible! So many errors. And yet he managed to take pole tells you how good that Mercedes is.

    1. Edgar
      4th July 2015, 18:56

      Everybody is sliding a lot this weekend.
      The Mercs just do it faster.

    2. peras
      4th July 2015, 22:16

      +1 Mercedes drivers are all over the place half the time…

      1. LH44
        4th July 2015, 22:54

        It seems that you think others don’t do mistakes or miss an apex here and there. These cars are different to the v8 era when they had more downforce and substantially a little bit easier to catch apexes. Maybe Hamilton uses different lines to carry more speed sometimes and that It can also have an effect.

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