Lewis Hamilton has explained how escaping the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya between FP3 and qualifying helped transform his weekend in Spain.
After qualifying second for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver detailed how he "didn't feel quite comfortable" in his SF-26 after sitting out FP1, something that left him dealing with a "huge offset" compared to his rivals.
The seven-time F1 drivers' champion missed the opening hour of running to satisfy the rookie FP1 criteria, with Dino Beganovic deputising for the Briton.
When he got back in the cockpit, he struggled, but a trip back to his motorhome helped turn around his fortunes, and he will line up for the 66-lap race between the two Mercedes drivers.
"It feels great to be up here with them. Honestly, this weekend's been so difficult," the 41-year-old said after the grid-setting session.
"Missing FP1 was... normally it's okay to miss FP1, but it had a huge offset, so every time... we went to FP2 I was just over a second off, and then we just didn't feel quite comfortable and up to it, and these tyres only last one lap, right? So you only have two shots at it in each session, and even if you do a cool-down lap and go again, the car balance is completely off, so it's not a good reference.
"So then I went to FP3, and again, I was easily four tenths, five tenths off, and I was thinking, 'Jesus, where am I going to get that pace?' and I went and left the track between FP3 and qualifying... I went back to my motorhome, came back, and then in Q1 I was first."
From there, Hamilton knew he had a car that could compete, having expected to be around four-tenths of a second slower than the George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, despite comprehensive Ferrari upgrades.
"So I knew I had good balance. I was really comfortable in that first session. Q2 was a little bit harder with traffic and everything, and then these guys did a great lap, naturally," he added.
"Congrats to George, but we're in a good position to be able to fight tomorrow, so we have a race [on our hands]."
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