However, while Hamilton\u2019s uncharacteristic spin in Sprint qualifying<\/a> wasn\u2019t blamed on the Ferrari\u2019s new rear suspension, he never looked as comfortable as Charles Leclerc<\/a> across the race weekend.<\/p>\n Leclerc performed brilliantly to outqualify Max Verstappen and start Sunday\u2019s race in third, and Hamilton looked like he had his work cut out after having his final lap of Q1 deleted and being eliminated at the expense of Gabriel Bortoleto.<\/p>\n Hamilton was one of four drivers to start from the pit lane, and the delayed start behind the safety car ultimately benefited him as he didn\u2019t lose as much time as expected.<\/p>\n However, Hamilton used all of his experience when making his only pit stop of the race to leapfrog six cars.<\/p>\n It earned him six unlikely points and a well-deserved Driver of the Day award.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton\u2019s life outside F1 from net worth to family<\/a><\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton delivered strategy \u2018masterclass\u2019 according to Ferrari fans at the Belgian Grand Prix<\/p>\n Ferrari posted on social media a third of the way through the race to notify their fans that both Hamilton and Leclerc had changed onto the medium compound tyres.<\/p>\n Fans were upset that the wet tyres were nowhere to be seen<\/a> at the start of the race, when instead the stewards decided to delay the start of the race owing to visibility issues.<\/p>\n The team updated fans that Leclerc had retained third, albeit narrowly avoiding a penalty for an unsafe release in front of Alex Albon, and Hamilton was up to seventh.<\/p>\n In response to that message, plenty of fans responded, praising Hamilton for pitting one lap earlier than many of his rivals.<\/p>\n One fan said: \u201cGreat strategy call for Lewis!!\u201d while another commented: \u201cBeautiful strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHamilton really is the GOAT,\u201d claimed another fan, with one using a nickname he has earned over the years by winning seven drivers\u2019 championships, stating: \u201cGoatmilton is him, we just need more rain.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCredit to masterclass strategist,\u201d said another comment, while one fan pointed to Ferrari\u2019s previous struggles in that department and stated: \u201cFinally, a good strategy for Hamilton.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, another supporter simply said: \u201cLewis is absolutely flying! Up 11 places, ridiculous,\u201d summing up the feeling towards the 40-year-old from the Tifosi.<\/p>\n READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory<\/a><\/p>\n Team principal Fred Vasseur<\/a> was asked in his post-race interview, via Motorsport<\/a>, whether the higher downforce choice Ferrari made on Hamilton\u2019s car after starting from the pit lane is something he\u2019ll do more often.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so. I think he was very aggressive on a wet track, and it was the right choice.<\/p>\n \u201cBut then he got stuck behind Albon, and I think we could have even made the Spa 24 Hours, but we would have been left behind Alexander.<\/p>\n RANKDRIVERTEAMPOINTS1Oscar PiastriMcLaren252Lando NorrisMcLaren183Charles LelcercFerrari154Max VerstappenRed Bull125George RussellMercedes106Alex AlbonWilliams87Lewis HamiltonFerrari68Liam LawsonRacing Bulls49Gabriel BortoletoSauber210Pierre GaslyAlpine1<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, that\u2019s how it went. I\u2019m convinced that in a normal race, if Lewis had run with a low-downforce setup, he could have gone faster.<\/p>\n \u201cBut starting from the pit lane was an aggressive choice to be able to make up ground in the first stint.\u201d<\/p>\n Hamilton ultimately couldn\u2019t find his way past Albon, although the amount of lifting and coasting he was being asked to do by the team didn\u2019t help matters.<\/p>\n He will hope that he can optimise the updates he\u2019s been given even further when he arrives at Hungarian Grand Prix next weekend.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton\u2019s wait for a Grand Prix podium with his new team continues. Lewis Hamilton went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,7696,826,823,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-26515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-belgian-grand-prix","11":"tag-ferrari","12":"tag-lewis-hamilton","13":"tag-motor","14":"tag-motor-sports","15":"tag-motosport","16":"tag-motosports","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ferrari](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2226594221-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Jakub Porzycki\/NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n