Lewis Hamilton was not happy with his Ferrari’s performance at Suzuka

Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton has issued a painfully honest assessment of his Japanese Grand Prix weekend after falling behind the front of the pack on Sunday.

The F1 legend was a shell of the charismatic driver that finished in the top three at the Chinese GP last time out, relieved to have finally ended his grand prix podium drought that lasted 27 races.

But when Hamilton took to the Suzuka International Circuit this weekend, he seemed unable to remain in the fight for long, with team-mate Charles Leclerc eventually getting the better of him.

Hamilton lined up on the third row ahead of lights out in Japan, but even with the help of Ferrari’s lightning fast starting procedure, he only gained a single position to move up to P5 on the opening lap.

Back-to-back podiums did seem on the cards for Hamilton after the race restart, when Mercedes’ George Russell lost P3 to his former team-mate. But Hamilton’s defence was truly tested by Leclerc on lap 42, with the Scuderia’s driver duo once again racing a little too close for comfort through Turn 1 and Turn 2.

Once the Monegasque star had snatched P3 from Hamilton, the Brit was never able to recover, dropping back down to P6, finishing the race in the same position he had started it in.

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Hamilton: ‘I couldn’t keep up’
The British racer clearly struggled with straight line speed throughout the 53-lap race, and when speaking to media after the Japanese GP, Hamilton appeared truly baffled by his lack of pace.

Hamilton said to Sky Sports: “Pretty, pretty terrible, ultimately, because I was P3 and ended up going backwards. But yeah, just need to understand where I was losing all the power.

“I just had a real lack of power through, particularly the second stint, but majority of the race, even from the beginning, I couldn’t keep up with people just for the lack of power.”

“I mean, I don’t know. I don’t really understand this. I’m full gas, and I’m managing where I’ve been asked to manage and for some reason just lacking power today.

The seven-time champion then hinted that Ferrari would need to do some digging on whether their car is holding them back or not before the next race in May, saying: “So need to figure out there’s something wrong with the car or not. But still, we got some points.”

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