Ferrari issue Lewis Hamilton message after 'aggressive' Belgian GP recovery

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has praised Lewis Hamilton's “aggressive” recovery to the points at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Hamilton endured a disappointing qualifying session and found himself out at the end of Q1 on Saturday.

The team made overnight changes to his car which relegated him to the pit lane for the start, however with a rolling start procedure in place, Hamilton was able to take his place in the pack.

The seven-time champion made a handful of overtakes in the early laps before being the first driver to switch to slick tyres, which lifted him into the points.

Vasseur praised Hamilton for his recovery from a disappointing qualifying result.

“The mood is good,” Vasseur told media including RacingNews365. “For sure it's not the result we were expecting with Lewis in qualifying.

“But it's part of the life of racing team that we reacted collectively very well.

“Lewis did a great job. He was quite aggressive at the beginning in the extreme conditions.

“He was able to fight with Albon until the end with the downforce of... well, not [for] Budapest. 

“It was a good recovery for him also to be efficient like this.”

However, Vasseur highlighted the necessity of complementing a strong race with a competitive qualifying result in order to extract the most from the weekend.

“Now for sure we have to do a better job from the beginning, if you want to score podium or wins, you can't let one session away,” he said.

“We'll have to do a step next week, but we are all pushing in the same direction.”