Lewis Hamilton predicts there is “a lot more greatness to come” from Charles Leclerc after the Ferrari driver scored his first victory at Spa.

Leclerc had led more laps than any driver bar Hamilton before the summer break, but was yet to win a race following near-misses in Bahrain and Austria. He beat Hamilton by less than a second to win in Belgium yesterday.

Hamilton said Leclerc’s results “speak for themselves really” and praised his performances against team mate Sebastian Vettel.

“It’s not easy for any driver to jump into a top team, let alone Ferrari, against a four-time world champion in the sport [with]… God knows how much more experience. And then to continuous from race one, out-perform, out-qualify and out-drive a four-time world champion is not easy to do. So I think that speaks for itself.

“He’s been really unlucky in quite a few races this year. It could easily have been the third win today. So there’s a lot more greatness to come from him and I’m looking forward to seeing his growth and racing alongside him. It was fun today, trying to chase him. He was just a little bit too quick.”

The gap between the pair closed down quickly over the final laps of the race as Hamilton caught the Ferrari. He suspected he could have caught his rival sooner had he made his first pit stop earlier.

“I was obviously trying to keep up with him but he was very strong on the soft tyres. We just stayed out too long, I think, because by the time he came in and the next lap the gap was twice as big.

“So I was chasing that up and also I got stuck behind Seb. But ultimately he did a superb job, so even if we had different strategies it would have been hard to beat him today I think.”

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2019 F1 season