Seven-time world champion Hamilton fell nearly seven tenths behind Leclerc’s Ferrari and six tenths behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull in Saturday’s qualifying, admitting both cars are “in another league” at the start of the season.
But despite qualifying outside the front two rows – something that only happened to him once in all of 2021 – Lewis Hamilton said he was pleased with the way the team mitigated the driving issues that seem to plague the new Mercedes W13.
After beating new team-mate George Russell by nearly a second following a mistake by the former Williams driver that only allowed him to qualify ninth, Hamilton said: “I’m not going to say I’m relieved.”
“Overall, I’m very happy with this day after seeing where we’ve been in the last two weeks, the pain we’ve had, the problems we’ve had with the car.
“It’s been a bit of a nightmare to drive, but we kept our heads down, focused and kept working, so I’m proud of everyone for keeping a positive attitude.”
“Getting fifth in the standings, seeing that the guys ahead of us are in another league makes me, overall, happy with where we are. It’s not the front row, but we’ll improve and do our best. we can”.
After Friday practice, Hamilton and Russell had already pointed out that Red Bull and Ferrari were up to a second quicker on high-fuel runs, leaving the Brackley -based team having to limit damage this weekend.
Hamilton acknowledged that he would not be able to compete with either of those two teams on Sunday and would instead be focused on fighting for fifth place against Valtteri Bottas, his former teammate, who qualified sixth with Alfa Romeo, or with him as well. surprising Kevin Magnussen, seventh despite his little preparation.
“Those guys [Red Bull and Ferrari] will run away so we won’t be in the fight with them,” he admitted.
“They were a second ahead of us on Friday in terms of race pace, so my battle is with the guys behind, probably.”
“Of course, I will try to be as fast as possible and finish in front. But, as I said, his performance is quite ahead of ours,” he lamented.
