Hamilton's SQ1 exit is disastrous start to Ferrari's key weekend

Lewis Hamilton has endured a disastrous first outing with Ferrari's key suspension upgrade - getting dumped out in the first segment of sprint qualifying at Formula 1's Belgian Grand Prix on Friday.

The seven-time F1 champion was having his first taste of revisions that Ferrari has made to its rear suspension in a bid to overcome weaknesses with its car.

It had been hoped that the tweaks would help Ferrari run its SF-25 in a much better set-up window and lower to the track – without risking wearing away its plank too much, which has been considered the 2025 car's primary handicap.

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But things did not get off to a good start for Hamilton as, after complaining about a tricky handling car in practice, it all went wrong for him in sprint qualifying.

On his first run, Hamilton suffered a high-speed snap running through Stavelot which cost him time and left him in the drop zone.

Then on his final run, having hauled himself into the top 15 after the first two sectors, it all went wrong at the Bus Stop chicane as he appeared to suffer a rear lock-up that pitched him into a spin as he ran off the track.

Speaking after the session, Hamilton said that it was "the first time I think in my career" he had lost a car like that.

That meant Hamilton ended up 18th overall, finishing only ahead of Alpine's Franco Colapinto and Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli - who had had a high-speed spin at Stavelot.

Reflecting on what happened, Hamilton added: "Not great. Not really a lot to say.

"Tomorrow is a new day. I'm massively frustrated so…A lot of work has gone in and to be there is not really great."

Ahead of track action beginning, Hamilton had played down hopes of the new suspension making a big difference – especially with so little time to find an ideal set-up.

"I'm sure there's going to be learnings from it," he said. "We'll figure out how to fine-tune it and try to extract performance from it.

"On the simulator, there's no difference. But I'm sure across different circuits, perhaps there'll be benefits."

Leclerc optimism for Ferrari upgrade

While Hamilton’s start to life with the new suspension was not ideal, team-mate Charles Leclerc was a little bit more optimistic about things.

He managed to qualify fourth and, despite being seventh tenths slower than pole position man Oscar Piastri, reckoned that the upgrades had actually delivered what had been hoped for.

“I felt the changes,” he said. “But the thing is, today, the gap is huge. I'm sure we did a step forward, but for some reason, the McLaren seems to be even faster than usual around this track. So it's a bit disappointing on that side of things.

“But I think what we were searching for with those upgrades we had it. It's just a shame to have such a difficult qualifying session, especially in terms of gaps.”

Leclerc reckons that there is now a sense of confidence that the suspension revisions will make things better for him and Hamilton, but he says it is downforce they need more than anything else.

“It's a mixed feeling,” he added. “On one side, I'm happy that the car feels better.

"On the other, even if the car feels actually pretty good, we are still seven tenths off, which is a huge amount of time.

“Yes, it's a long track, but still, it's a big amount of time. So there's a lot of work to be done.

“We just need to add grip to this car at the end of the day. I don't think we do anything particularly wrong, but we just need more grip that we don't seem to have for now.”