Hamilton addresses talk of F1 title challenge after shock Spa result

Lewis Hamilton has dismissed talk of mounting a surprise challenge for the F1 world title after finishing second in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Mercedes dominated the Spa race with Hamilton finishing less than a second behind one-stopping team-mate George Russell in the first one-two for the team of the season. 

The team has now won three of the last six races, including two on merit, as the W15 continues to rapidly improve following a poor start to the season.

Hamilton is now 132 points behind championship leader Max Verstappen in what seems to be a faster car, having finished ahead of the world champion for the last four races. 

However, he quickly shut down talk of mounting an unlikely title challenge in the second-half of the season. 

"No, that would be very high hopes," Hamilton explained. 

"I mean if we can continue these kind of performances, the last few races have been fantastic.

"If we can start our weekends off a little bit better, hopefully we can continue but the McLaren was very strong today, but we were just a little bit further ahead early on, but we've just got to keep pushing."

NOTE:  George Russell was promptly disqualified from the race for an underweight car handing the win to Hamilton.

Hamilton's race

Mercedes struggled badly on Friday at Spa, and even took some upgrades off the W15, leading Hamilton to brand the day as a "disaster" but heaped praise on the team for the turnaround to take its first one-two since the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. 

"First, congratulations to George and to the team," Hamilton said. 

"We had such a disaster on Friday and that the car was really nowhere, and we made some changes, but it was hard to see what it was going to feel like given the rain in qualifying.

"But the car was fantastic and we really owe it to everyone doing a solid job with the strategy and pitstops.

"I was trying to get closer closer [to the one-stopping Russell], but George did a great job to go long on the tyres. 

"It was unfortunate, but it was just one of those days [for me]."