Montreal, May 23 (IANS) Lewis Hamilton said the huge change he made to his routine ahead of this weekend has been a catalyst for his best F1 qualifying session of the year so far after fifth in Sprint Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.

Ahead of the weekend the seven-time World Champion revealed he would not be using Ferrari’s simulator and would be focussing on in depth data analysis and setup work with engineers. That plan seemed to immediately reap rewards in Montreal, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where Hamilton comfortably outqualified teammate Charles Leclerc for the first time since the Chinese Grand Prix earlier in the season.

“It was probably our best Qualifying session that we’ve had in a while,” Hamilton said after claiming P5 on the sprint grid. “It’s great work with the engineers on the set-up changes; the car has felt really fantastic from FP1 and we’ve done some subtle changes for Quali.”

The Briton ran well throughout both SQ1 and SQ2 but eventually ended up trailing the Mercedes-Benz and McLaren runners.

“SQ1 and SQ2 were looking good, and then I don’t know what’s happening for the others to be able to turn up their cars a little bit more, I don’t know,” he said. ” I am just happy to be able to be in the fight.

“I’ve had so much fun out there today. It’s also nice that I’ve not been using the sim and this is what the feeling feels like so I think for me that is the direction to go.”

Hamilton explained the time spent away from the simulator was spent on physical fitness and in depth analysis of the car’s balance characteristics.

“Yeah, we’ve had to work really hard in the last few weeks and sift through the data,” he said. ” So much more beneficial; first, because I was able to really concentrate on training and not get myself distracted; and second, to really comb through with the ride stability and with the corner balance and mechanical balance of the car. I’ve used a set-up that we’ve never tried before and it has changed the car for me, so I hope it serves us well through the rest of the weekend.”

While it was a promising Friday for Hamilton it was not for Leclerc who suffered with his braking through Sprint Qualifying, the Ferrari drivers will start fifth and sixth respectively after the McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked out the second row.

“Honestly on my side I kind of expected it as I was not at ease with the car,” Leclerc said. ” I am really struggling with the brakes for my side of the garage, for some reason; we need to look into it; hopefully find something for tomorrow otherwise it’s going to be a very long race because when I get into corners with the brakes, I hope that I don’t straight line the corner.”

“That’s pretty much the only big issue right now. Outside of that, the car actually feels quite ok. Lewis has been super fast this weekend, on my side I just need to find a way to work on my feelings on the brakes andhopefully we can get ourselves out of this situation tomorrow.”

–IANS

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