Hamilton finally pinpoints why he's off the pace this weekend

The sprint was a bit of a nothing race for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, being overtaken by Carlos Sainz at the safety car restart, and Fernando Alonso before the end, were the only notable moments of the Brits Saturday afternoon. Although that being said the Mercedes driver has positive feedback on the new format.

"I like that we're trying something new with this format." opened Hamilton, as he responded positively to the new changes brought about to the sprint format this weekend. "The extra qualifying session was fun. The sprint race was less exciting but that's probably because I was struggling. It wasn't ideal losing the position to Alonso. It's never great going backwards but that's motor racing sometimes." the Briton admits candidly continuing "I didn't have the pace of the cars ahead of me, but I know why that is now, from having the Sprint."

As always Hamilton remains positive for the races and time ahead of him, "It's a good indicator of what the problem is in terms of set-up, so we'll look into it and hopefully make some improvements tomorrow. It's going to be tough, but anything can happen."