Lewis Hamilton’s body language offers clues on Ferrari’s form at Singapore GP

Former F1 driver Anthony Davidson believes Lewis Hamilton’s body language suggests Ferrari’s pace is better than it showed on the timesheets in second practice for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Hamilton finished 10th in the final classification in FP2, over 0.7s off Oscar Piastri.

It was a messy session overall, with two red flag stoppages.

Hamilton was unable to complete a representative lap at the end of the session in second practice.

While Charles Leclerc did on the soft tyres, he was only ninth-fastest, just ahead of Hamilton.

After listening to Hamilton’s post-session interview, Davidson felt Hamilton was still “sounding so positive,” suggesting that there’s more to come from Ferrari in qualifying.

“I can read a lot by his body language and he wears his heart on his sleeve as we know, for good and bad,” Davidson explained.

“I am surprised he’s sounding so positive. I take positivity from Ferrari’s efforts and what we can see happening tomorrow and on Sunday because if he feels comfortable in the car then he’s such an instinctive, intuitive driver that he’s already feeling that the car under him is doing good things.

“The car that he’s always wanted to have around this track. Onwards and upwards for him in that car and he’s certainly feeling more comfortable.

“He just needs that luck to be on his side for the whole weekend now.”

“Lots of positives” for Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton has continued to make steady progress since the summer break.

His deficit to Leclerc has been smaller in recent rounds as Hamilton looks to secure his first podium of the season.

Reflecting on Friday in Singapore, Hamilton said: “It’s generally been a good day. I have enjoyed driving the car. It’s the first time driving a Ferrari at this track. 

“I’ve always wondered all these years from looking at onboards what the differences would be and it’s the first time I got to feel that today. It was positive. Obviously, McLaren are very fast.

“Getting a clean lap isn’t easy. I feel like there’s lots of positives to take from today, lots of learnings. Quite happy with the progress that we’ve made from session to session.”

Hamilton doesn’t expect there to be significant set-up changes overnight.

“I feel like we’ve made steps forward today,” he added.

“I feel like overnight we won’t change much but of course, trying to refine the setup. See if we can extract a little bit more to get as close as we can to the McLarens.”