Lewis Hamilton says the F1 track surface “ruined” Eau Rouge

After the first day of action for the Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton felt that a new bump that had appeared on the bottom of Eau Rouge would make it an ordeal to drive through there.

“It’s a great, great track,” said the Mercedes driver. “It’s very bumpy now through Eau Rouge, something is happening.

“They kind of ruined it a little bit with whatever it is. I don’t know if they have a new patch [of asphalt] there, but right at the compression point there is a massive bump that we’ve never had there.

“It’s really, really sharp by that [body]. You can feel it on the back. But I am sure they will fix it. I think it has something to do with the mudslides, the rain or something. “

Hamilton’s comments came before a serious accident involving six drivers during qualifying for the W-Series at Eau Rouge. The W Series confirmed that all drivers are fine and said they would be releasing a full update on the incident shortly.

Spa was recently hit by severe flooding when torrential rains hit this part of Europe, damaging several external roads.

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But despite his feelings for Eau Rouge, Hamilton was quite encouraged from day one of the running, despite title rival Max Verstappen topping the timesheet.

“It was an OK day, the meetings are very short,” he said. “So we don’t get a large amount of [running]. There isn’t much knowledge that you can gain from the short amount of time you have.

“We try to navigate as well as possible. At least it was dry for P2 so we have a couple of laps to go. But the car wasn’t quite under me today. So I have to do some work tonight and try to find out. “

Hamilton said key for the weekend is deciding on the right downforce, with teams juggling the diverse nature of the various sectors of Spa and the added complication of rain predicted for Sunday.

“I think if it is guaranteed to rain, then you want more downforce,” he said. “But if it’s not raining and the weather man is wrong or the weather woman is wrong, then you are a sitting duck on the straight.

“So yeah, we have to be very, very careful and careful about the attitude changes we make the next day.”