Lewis Hamilton declared ‘miffed’ as Spa strategy frustration hint dropped

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

Not wanting to say a word in the cooldown room, Lewis Hamilton was declared “miffed” over his Belgian Grand Prix strategy by Martin Brundle, Hamilton claiming he had tyre life left in every stint.

For much of the race, it looked as if Hamilton was well on his way to a second victory of the season ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, but a strategy gamble from Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate George Russell flipped that scenario at the front on its head.

George Russell Spa one-stop topples Lewis Hamilton

While Hamilton went with the two-stop strategy, Mercedes needing to cover Leclerc, Russell began calling for a one-stopper, Mercedes confirming after the race that tyre wear did turn out to be lower than their pre-race expectations.

And a one-stop strategy it was for Russell as Hamilton closed in for the final laps, but Russell defended expertly to secure victory, while Hamilton made it a Mercedes one-two. Initially anyway. Russell would be disqualified post-race after his Mercedes was found to be underweight, meaning victory for Hamilton after all.

Hamilton had nothing to say to Russell in the cooldown room, with P3 finisher, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, also struggling to get a word out of the seven-time World Champion.

“Lewis is miffed with that,” Sky F1 co-commentator Brundle said in his assessment of that frosty scene.

“He feels that he parked too much grip in the pit lane at each pit-stop. He’s not happy about that.”

Lead commentator David Croft replied: “Well, they pitted him to cover Charles Leclerc, who was his main rival for the second stop.”

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Speaking immediately after the race, Hamilton confirmed his belief that he still had plenty of life left in his tyres when Mercedes were calling him in.

Asked if he could have expected this Mercedes one-two coming into the race, Hamilton replied: “No, we definitely didn’t.

“And first, I have to say congratulations to George and to the team.

“No, we had such a disaster on Friday. The car was really nowhere and we made some changes. It was hard to see what it was going to feel like, obviously because of the wet yesterday, but the car was fantastic today and we really owe it to everyone both here doing a solid job through the pit-stops and strategy and the guys manufacturing.

“I was trying to get closer obviously, but George did a great job on going long on the tyres.

“Every stint I had tyres left, but the team pulled me in. So yeah, unfortunate. But it’s one of those days.”

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