“The car was really nowhere”: Lewis Hamilton surprised with Mercedes’ race pace after 1-2 finish in Belgian GP

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton claimed that he and the team were nowhere on Friday and did a 'solid job' to bring home a 1-2 in the Belgian GP. The seven-time world champion missed out on the race win to his teammate George Russell by less than a second, as he was unable to pass his fellow compatriot on fresher tires.

Hamilton started the race on Sunday in P3 but made a position on Turn 1 on Sergio Perez and later got past his future teammate at Ferrari, Charles Leclerc to take the race lead at the Spa-Francorchamps.

He led the race throughout but was caught out by the one-stopper from Russell and finished behind him to bring home a 1-2 for Mercedes. In his post-race interview with F1TV, the 39-year-old was complimentary of his teammate George Russell and said:

"First I have to say congratulations to George and to the team. We had such a disaster on Friday. The car was really nowhere. We made some changes, hard to see what it was going to feel like because of the wet yesterday, but the car was fantastic today and we really owe it to everyone, both here doing a solid job with pit stops and strategy, and the guys back at the factory."

Hamilton further emphasized that it was pretty difficult to pass the 26-year-old despite being on over 20 laps fresher hard tires as he "was trying to get closer obviously, but George did a great job going long on the tires".

Lewis Hamilton rules out challenging Max Verstappen for Drivers' Championship

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton believed that it would be high expectations for the German team to think about challenging Max Verstappen in the Drivers' Championship.

Hamilton mentioned that despite the recent uptick in form, he was not in the hunt for the title. He said:

"No. That would be high hopes. If we can continue these kinds of performances we’ve had the last few races, which has been fantastic, if we can start our weekends better hopefully we can continue. I think the McLaren was very strong today but we were just a bit further ahead early on. We’ve just got to keep pushing."

Lewis Hamilton is currently just two points ahead of George Russell in the championship in P6 with 143 points as compared to Russell's 141 heading into the summer break.