The Barcelona race was the last race before the championship on the Monaco and Baku street circuits – where Mercedes, who won the Spanish race with Hamilton, struggled and Ferrari managed to qualify at the top of the grid as the layout of these circuits was favored and disadvantaged various packages.
Red Bull won both street track events despite Hamilton’s title rival Max Verstappen losing a dominant win in Baku due to his high-speed tire failure in the closing stages.
Verstappen will start Sunday’s French GP from pole – the first time a non-Mercedes car has topped qualifying since Paul Ricard and the French event were back on the F1 calendar in 2018 – which Hamilton says is a win from Red Bull in the six weeks since the Barcelona race.
Pole sitter Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing with the Pirelli Pole Position Award
Photo by: FIA Pool
“It’s nice that we’re second and third [on the grid], it puts us in the middle of the Red Bulls, it gives us a chance to really put pressure on [in the race]“, Said Hamilton in the press conference after qualifying.
“But it’s closer than ever.
“Maybe they seemed to have fought their way a little further than we maybe were in Barcelona.”
Hamilton qualified second after changing the setup at the last minute before qualifying. He had already arrived in France and didn’t know where Mercedes would fare against Red Bull as he was fighting for tire temperature in Monaco and Baku.
He stated that he “didn’t really know what to expect this weekend” and “definitely hoped we’d look stronger”.
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He added, “Of course we did – we were in the top 5 or top 4 all weekend.
“But it didn’t feel great, but it obviously has to feel worse further back.
“We knew that the Red Bulls would of course be strong everywhere. Street courses, it doesn’t seem to matter where you go, they are very strong.
“And we have some areas that we need to keep working on in order to improve.
“Obviously, [in qualifying] I heard that we mostly lost on the straights, so we’ll try to find out what that is. ”
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