Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari had the stronger race pace in the Belgian Grand Prix, despite holding off Sebastian Vettel to claim a fifth win of the year on Sunday to cut the German's championship lead to seven points.
Though his Mercedes team have the advantage over a single lap, many went into Sunday's race believing the better tyre conservation of the Italian team would help them keep up and so it proved as the German was able to stay with the Mercedes throughout the 44 laps at Spa.
However, the Prancing Horse never had the opportunity to use any advantage it had, as the Mercedes was able to use similar engine modes it has for qualifying and a little less drag with the wings to stay clear down the straights with the turbulent air hurting Vettel's handling in the middle sector.
“The Ferraris I think genuinely had the upper hand, particularly on race pace throughout the weekend,” Hamiton claimed. “It was very, very strong today and I was towing him around everywhere, so they were getting a good tow down the straights."
The four-time world champion's best chance came right after a Safety Car when he was able to draw alongside in the slipstream down the Kemmel Straight but not pull far enough ahead to take the line into the Les Combes chicane.
“On the restart, the Safety Car was driving so slow, it was I guess to let the other people catch up, so keeping tyre temperature, given I was on the harder tyre, was very, very difficult," Lewis explained.
“I came to the restart, Sebastian was very, very close, the front tyres weren’t switched on initially. He got a good tow. I think he was a little bit too close on the run out of Turn 1, so I think he had to lift off as he would have otherwise come by potentially before Eau Rouge which perhaps was a good thing for me because he lost a little bit of performance.
The 32-year-old has said on several occasions about the enjoyment his battle with Vettel has given him this season and he mentioned it again after an intense fight even if an uneventful one for onlookers.
"He did a great race, he was very, very consistent throughout,” Hamilton said praising his main title rival. “It was fun to be racing against another team and Sebastian really at his best and the car at his best, battling within half a tenth every lap. That’s what racing is about.
“I think they’re able to keep up and follow quite closely for a long, long time, so I think they had the better pace today but fortunately I was able to do just enough to stay ahead.”
Despite his eventual victory, the triple world champion was left frustrated by the need for a Safety Car, following a collision between the two Force India's which would threaten his win as Vettel changed to what was thought to be much faster ultra-soft tyres.
“I felt like it was a bit like NASCAR where they keep putting out the Safety Cars for no reason,” he claimed. “The wing was clear after we’d slowed down, and they could have done a VSC but I guess they wanted to see a race.
“That’s for sure the reason they did that because there was hardly any debris, if at all because they’d cleaned it so well. Before that, it was obviously close.”
