Lewis Hamilton faced a disappointing early elimination during the qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix. Initially, he believed he had secured a place in the next stage of qualifying, but his fastest lap was invalidated by the Formula 1 stewards.
Despite being in the bottom five, Hamilton managed to improve his position with his final lap, moving up to seventh on the timesheets and securing a spot in Q2. However, his joy was short-lived as the stewards reviewed his lap and determined that he had exceeded track limits at Spa-Francorchamps by running all four wheels over the white line at Eau Rouge and Raidillon.
Although onboard cameras from his Ferrari provided inconclusive evidence, a static off-board camera confirmed that Hamilton had indeed gone off the track. This decision led to the deletion of his lap time, pushing him down to 16th place on the timesheets.
This incident marked the first time a Ferrari driver failed to progress from Q1 since Carlos Sainz in 2023. It was also the second setback for Hamilton during the weekend, as he had previously spun out during the Sprint race grid-setting session due to unfamiliarity with a new component on his car.
Hamilton attributed the spin to a new upgrade on his Ferrari that he had not previously used, causing unexpected issues with the brakes. Despite the challenges, Hamilton remained hopeful that he could overcome these difficulties in the upcoming races.
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