Lewis Hamilton's seventh place in the Belgian Grand Prix sounds on paper like another disappointing result for the seven-time World Champion, who has greatly underperformed since he joined Ferrari. However, Hamilton ended up being voted Driver of the Day by F1.com users with nearly half the votes (38.8% voted for him, while the second best, Piastri, was voted by 10.6% of fans).
Hamilton surprised by climbing from P18, starting in pit lane, to finish seventh and earn six points: nobody climbed more places than him in the rainy race at Spa-Francorchamps. After being out of both qualifying rounds early on and finishing 13th in the sprint, he took a strategy of starting from the pit lane instead of from 16th place, to start with a higher-downforce rear wing in anticipation of the rain. The race was then delayed one hour, which partly frustrated his plans, but still was able to pass Sainz, Stroll, Colapinto, Hulkenberg, and Gasly in the first laps.
"This one is definitely one to put behind me", said Hamilton via Formula1.com. "I definitely feel confident going forward and learned more about the car today. I'll set that up better for next week. I don't see why we can't have better results moving forward."
So far, Hamilton has not yet achieved any podiums with Ferrari and sits sixth with 109 points, helped in part by his sprint win in China in March.