Lewis Hamilton: I was wrong, and that's unacceptable

      Charles Leclerc showed the third fastest time in the Belgian Grand Prix qualifying. The Ferrari driver said that such a result was a pleasant surprise for him.

      For Lewis Hamilton, the battle ended in the first session – his best time was canceled out after all four wheels went off the track at Turn 4, and the seven-time world champion dropped to sixteenth in the session's protocol. Hamilton called his qualifying performance unacceptable.

      Charles Leclerc (3rd): "I am very pleased. It's strange to say because I lost three tenths and am only in third place, but I didn't expect such a result. We thought we would be much further back.

      The team knew that thanks to the upgrades prepared for this weekend, we could achieve more, but there were many problems yesterday. However, in qualifying, I managed a really good lap.

      I am very happy with the attempt and how the car was managed. It's great that today we were able to put all the pieces together.

      I don't know if I will be able to fight in the race, as the runners were very fast in the sprint – I couldn't keep up with them. But with small adjustments to the settings that we made before qualifying, I hope to gain some ground in the main race."

      

      Lewis Hamilton (16th): "After the sprint, we adjusted the settings, and I wouldn’t say the car was terribly handling. It was more difficult because I had to put on a second set of soft tires to try to get out of the first part. Not the best option, and then I made a mistake.

      I need to figure everything out with the team. I apologize to the team because it's simply unacceptable that I was eliminated in the first session of both qualifying rounds this weekend. I performed very poorly.

      We are trying to get the maximum out of the car we have, and everyone at the base is working at full capacity. We brought updates for this round, and probably that's all with the new parts for this year.

      Right now, we're focused on tomorrow's race, but after returning to the base, all attention will be on next season's car.**