Hamilton refers to Austin Powers: 'He was having a smoke and a cake'

With a fourth place, Hamilton maximised in the Ardennes. Whatever he did, he struggled to catch up to Leclerc. Indeed, in the end the Briton finished over 17 seconds behind the Monegasque. But he could get the fastest lap of the race "Yeah, it always felt like he had an answer for all the laps I was doing, so they had the upper hand this weekend," Hamilton responded to GPblog and others. "I tried, I pushed a lot, I had a lot of degradation [of the tyres], especially in the middle sector."

Verstappen was relaxing

Winner Max Verstappen did not suffer from any of that. The Dutchman was able to cruise to victory. Verstappen was even thinking about making an extra pit stop, then sharpening his fastest lap time. Hamilton was asked what he thought of that. "I have no idea, I haven't spoken to him. He's having a smoke and a pancake", by which Hamilton was referring to a quote by Austin Powers about Dutchmen and marijuana - in other words, he was relaxing at the head of the field.

Hamilton does not expect the differences between the teams to fluctuate hugely in the coming races. "I don't know how many others are going to develop through the second part of the season, but I think there will be some change. I don't know what happened with Aston, how they took a step back, but I'm sure McLaren will be strong in the second phase. Ferrari and us, it's close. Depending on the circuit, it will change a bit, I hope we will be competitive."