Lewis Hamilton pleads guilty to Alonso incident

On the first lap of the Belgian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton tried to attack Fernando Alonso – the battle was for 2nd position. But in Turn 5 between their cars there was rather hard contact, causing damage to Mercedes that prevented the seven-time world champion from continuing the race.

Alonso then angrily remarked on the radio that Hamilton, trying to get ahead of him on the outer stretch, was simply not leaving him room on the track. Fernando then even allowed himself to certify the opponent in a very unflattering way, calling him an insulting word.

When Hamilton returned to the pits, he watched a video replay of this episode, before admitting he had done wrong.

Lewis Hamilton (gets out): “I looked at the footage and realized he was in my blind spot and I didn’t leave enough space for him. In general, this is my fault and I have to apologize to the team. What Alonso said on the radio, I don’t care, but I just didn’t see him, it’s my fault.”

George Russell (4th): “After the race I have mixed feelings. If I had been told the day before that I would finish fourth today and just two seconds off the podium I would probably have been very happy.

But when I closed the gap from the top three and won a second per lap, I had hopes for a podium, but then I didn’t do well for the first two laps after the pit stop because the tires were not warm enough.

Unfortunately, it seems like we’ve only been talking about tires lately. When the tires are in the right temperature range, the car just transforms, but in my case it was the other way around, after which I realized I had to say goodbye to podium hopes.

And yet I finished fourth, which is not so bad. We have to analyze everything in detail, but our race pace was much better than Ferrari’s. Obviously Carlos Sainz started from pole and led the first segment, but we closed the gap twice. In any case, we were not inferior to Ferrari in terms of pace, although at the same time it is quite clear that Max Verstappen easily broke away from everyone.

Toto Wolff, Team principal: “I don’t think we can be happy with the results of the weekend. If you look at how fast Verstappen was, it becomes clear that we have to do something to improve our car.

The gap is too big – this is the reality. We have to admit that the car is very difficult to drive, it clearly lacks speed in qualifying mode, and we have to find a way to fix this. In the time remaining before the Dutch Grand Prix we have a lot to figure out, but the question should not only be asked about the preparation for the next race, but also for next year.

Let’s hope that the Zandvoort track suits our car better than Spa and that we will be more competitive there. Today we have every reason to be angry, but we are not giving up.”