Lewis Hamilton’s unheard team radio confirms Charles Leclerc’s ‘unbelievable’ post-race Spanish Grand Prix comments

Lewis Hamilton was left disappointed with his Spanish Grand Prix after finishing in sixth place behind Nico Hulkenberg.

Hamilton had his best qualifying of the season, having started in fifth place on the grid. Despite having a good start and making his way up to fourth, he came under pressure from Charles Leclerc.

Ferrari instructed their drivers to swap positions after it became clear Hamilton was struggling with his tyres and that it would impact Leclerc’s ability to go longer in his stint.

Leclerc had also sacrificed part of his qualifying and requested the team make the switch to avoid dropping positions in the race. A late Safety Car for Andrea Kimi Antonelli enabled Hamilton to make up a few positions, but Hulkenberg later overtook him for the final top-five place.

After the race, Hamilton came over team radio to his engineer Ricciardo Adami and made comments that appeared to vindicate Leclerc’s post-race comments made in the cool down room.

Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari was ‘worst it’s ever been’ in Spanish GP

Speaking to Oscar Piastri in the post-race cool-down room, Leclerc referenced the poor balance in his Ferrari: “Did your balance change a lot from the beginning of the race until the end of the race? For me it was unbelievable. I don’t know what happened.”

Hamilton appeared to vindicate Leclerc’s comments, after consistently complaining about his car’s balance as the race progressed.

Early on in the race, Hamilton was adamant that he could not catch George Russell because of the lack of grip from his soft tyres.

Later in the race he complained a lack of rear end before the Safety Car, before reiterating his comments post-race to Adami.

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Lewis Hamilton had an ‘issue’ in final stint

Hamilton was outpaced by Leclerc throughout the 66-lap Grand Prix, but his sixth place now puts him 23 points behind Leclerc in the Drivers’ Championship.

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur told Sky Sports after the race that Hamilton suffered a problem on his SF-25 before the Safety Car, but was not specific on the issue.

“If you want to create a polemic, you can. But it’s not the case. I think he did 70% of the race in front of Russell. I’m not sure that Russell said that the race was a disaster,” said Vasseur.

“But then we had an issue on the car the last stint, before the Safety Car. The result is not good, but he did 45 laps in front of Russell.”

Nico Rosberg felt Ferrari put Hamilton in a ‘horrible’ situation by forcing him to concede position to Leclerc in the early stages of the race.