Suspension and brakes not behind Hamilton’s qualifying problems

2016 Singapore Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton says the suspension problems he experienced yesterday were fixed before qualifying and weren’t the cause of his deficit to Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton was over seven-tenths of a second slower than his team mate and will start on the second row of the grid behind Daniel Ricciardo.

Hamilton struggled with turn seven in practice
“It’s not been my weekend so far,” said Hamilton after qualifying. “I’ve not got many good laps out there. Not for any particular reason. I just haven’t been able to string it together.”

Hamilton went off twice at Memorial corner – turn seven – during the final practice session. “People have pointed out turn seven as the problem,” he said. “But it isn’t any more difficult than any other corner on the track. It’s one of the heaviest on brakes and quite bumpy but that’s it.”

“I had an issue with the suspension not working properly in practice which affected my braking – but we fixed that and in qualifying braking wasn’t a problem.”

Hamilton said his team mate “showed the potential of the car today” and suggested he will be hard to beat in the race.

“I’ve not really looked at the long runs and I didn’t get to do any yesterday. Nico did and, although our setups are slightly different, I don’t think I’ll be in a bad position. I’ll find out tomorrow.”

“I’ve kind of been on the back foot for most of the year, so it’s nothing new to be in this situation. I’ll do what I can from here.”

“It’s tough to overtake here but I think we’ve made the right call on strategy. Red Bull will go longer on the super-softs at the start – but Nico will probably control the race from the front and make it hard to get by.”

2016 Singapore Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    14 comments on “Suspension and brakes not behind Hamilton’s qualifying problems”

    1. Lewis was awesome today in the interviews, gained me alot of him respect. He is know for his moaning whenever he loses, but when the Sky presenter said that alot of the margin was due to problems, Lewis told her to stop making excuses. Top reply

      1. Yeah, hes learning how to lose with grace, probably the only thing hes been able to really get his head around this year.

        I think the more impressive moment post qualifying was the way Nico looked at him when Lewis was giving it his side during the top 3 debrief. Lolz, that and the way he raged at the fans in Italy, that guy is a real great ‘brand’ ambassador for what is going on in F1 these days. #sigh #representin.

        1. #representin

          what does it supposed to say; even when spelled correctly?

          And putting a hashtag before ‘sigh’. Do you expect people to search for comments with that word!

        2. Jean-Vart Vaughn
          17th September 2016, 20:37

          “when Lewis was giving it his side”. I honestly do not understand you. I find your comment extremely difficult to understand.

        3. Wait. Nico raged in Italy?

    2. for me it is sad as an f1 fan, that an f1 driver can have a terrible day being .7 behind his teammate, and still be P3— at the expense of other drivers that drove great but did not have the machinery to prove it. for other drivers .7 seconds can mean the difference of -P4 or P17.

      1. That’s a refreshing perspective.

    3. Something not right with the car, Hamilton turned into a sloth overnight. I guess it’s for the show….

      1. Conspiracy theorists have taken over this website

        1. Yeah you’re right, I mean he must have forgotten how to drive overnight….

          Wonder lap my backside from Nico, he basically replicated the time on his second run…..

          1. LH didn’t forget how to drive. He just had a bad weekend. I know that for a certain fanbase that is very hard to accept and excuses must always be made, but it can happen.

            As for Rosberg, was slower on his second run when the track was likely faster (both RBRs improved). It was a wonder lap. He beat Hamilton by 0.7 seconds

    4. BBC reports Mercedes saying Hamilton’s car is producing less downforce which they’re analysing overnight.

      1. Something very fishy, you can see Lewis is fed up. This is nothing like Monza, Nico mentioned the car was great and he’d done some good laps, Lewis looked lost….

        1. Per Hamilton’s own explanation and very blunt and straight, he simply just did not manage in the quali to string together 3 good sectors times on the same lap. Look at the individual sector times he posted during quali, and you can see he was indeed able to match Rosberg in all 3 of them. But to his own remark, simply just not getting them all right in one lap. Hamilton has matured greatly and not hinting towards foul play, simply just staying matter of facts. Suggest you do the same.

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