{"id":167153,"date":"2025-09-25T02:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T02:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/167153\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T02:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T02:31:10","slug":"lewis-hamilton-starting-to-find-his-groove-as-more-confident-observation-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/167153\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton \u201cstarting to find his groove\u201d as \u201cmore confident\u201d observation made"},"content":{"rendered":"

F1 pundit James Hinchcliffe has praised Lewis Hamilton for his performance across the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, claiming he\u2019s \u201cstarting to find his groove\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hamilton recovered from a disappointing Q2 exit to finish eighth in Baku.<\/p>\n

The seven-time world champion was eliminated early in qualifying after Ferrari didn\u2019t give him fresh rubber for his final Q2 effort.<\/p>\n

Up until qualifying, Hamilton had looked comfortable around the Baku streets.<\/p>\n

To Hamilton\u2019s credit, he\u2019s proven to be a closer match to Charles Leclerc <\/a>since the summer break.<\/p>\n

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His crash at Zandvoort and grid penalty at Monza have masked his true progress.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, Hinchcliffe observed a more confident Hamilton in Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

Hinchcliffe said: \u201c8th and 9th just seems like such a transparent result. Like, it\u2019s a bit of a footnote. But in a race where we were expecting a lot of the out of position cars to make big ground and almost none of them did, Hamilton from 12th to 8th and beating Leclerc, that might have been one of the drives of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of hidden and not really talked about. Obviously, Max, obviously, Carlos, obviously, George. But I think behind that, Hamilton\u2019s drive – he actually made some progress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe beat his teammate. He was so much more confident in his race car this weekend. He visibly looked lighter and more enthusiastic and happier to be at the racetrack than he has for quite some time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A breakthrough for Hamilton?<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton<\/a>\u2019s difficulties with this year\u2019s Ferrari have been well documented.<\/p>\n

The British driver hasn\u2019t been happy with the brakes, given Ferrari run Brembo rather than Carbon Industrie.<\/p>\n

\"Lewis <\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton<\/p>\n

Additionally, Hamilton has stressed how different the Ferrari is to drive compared to Mercedes, making every weekend a dive into the unknown.<\/p>\n

Hinchcliffe is hopeful that this possible breakthrough for Hamilton translates for the final seven races of the year.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI really, truly hope that whatever it is they found, because we\u2019ve seen this on in sessions maybe over the last half the year and maybe over a day, but it\u2019s never over a weekend,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe really carried that optimism all weekend long, even after the poor qualifying, going into the race, he was still optimistic he could make some ground up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRelatively speaking, he did. I really hope that whatever they found translates to other racetracks because Hamilton\u2019s starting to find his groove in that car. That\u2019s – that\u2019s exciting for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

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