Lewis Hamilton’s qualifying performance in Belgium was compromised by a brake issue that cost him valuable time and left him unable to challenge Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton suffered with glazing of the left front brake disc (supplied by Carbone Industrie rather than Brembo), a result of it running too cold.
“They could see it on the data, and they didn’t understand initially,” said Hamilton. “They thought that perhaps it was a sensor failure, but when I informed them that the car was pulling to the right they knew it was real. They don’t understand, but it was taking serious dips in temperature.
“When you go out from the pitlane there is something on the car that helps you warm the brakes up, so you put that on when you go out, you do everything you do normally, which I did. I go into Turn One, and the car started pulling to the right. So then they told me the temperature on that brake is really low, so I had to move the brake balance as far forward as possible, so I tried to clear it and clear it, and then try again, and it was still there. I could never seem to get rid of it. I don’t really know where it came from.”
Asked how much time he lost he said: “I’ve been quick all weekend. It doesn’t really make any difference how fast I would have been. Definitely a good pace. It just turns out that second place is not such a bad place to start here, so I see the positives.”
Adam Cooper's F1 Blog 