Hamilton: They’ve got a few trick things going on

After the 44-lap race at the challenging and iconic Spa-Francorchamps Hamilton was clearly downbeat when he conceded, "They blitzed us today. Eleven seconds is a big, big gap."

"I don't know what we can do. I did everything I could but he drove past me like I wasn't even there, He sailed past me on the straight."

"He was doing times I wasn't able to do. It got to a point where it was just sensible to save the engine," added Hamilton confirming the contest was over long before the chequered flag waved on lap 44 of a race that started with a bang but ended in a stalemate at the front.

The Briton added, "They’ve got a few trick things going on in the car. I did what I could, we did what we could and we’ve just got to keep working."

He clarified the use of the word "trick" which could be interpreted as suggesting Ferrari were bending the rules, but he clarified, "We all have trick things on our cars. Trick is just a word for something special, I guess."

And Later added, "I’m not saying that there’s anything illegal on. I’m just saying we all have something trick. There’s probably something trick on…"

"Trick is just something that helps you bring that extra bit of performance. That’s all I mean. I don’t mean anything to it so please don’t read into it and please don’t twist my words and say that I say they’re doing anything illegal because they’re not."

"We knew they were quicker on the straights, particularly in qualifying in the last sector. We've known for the last four races that they've had some things on their car that's enabled them to be quicker on the straights and we just need to work harder I guess," lamented Hamilton when interviewed by Sky.

"Minus seven points in the next eight races is going to be a lot points. I hope that's not the case but if we do continue to have the lack of pace that we lacked today then we will continue to be minus seven points," added Hamilton who leaves Spa on 231 points, 17 more than Vettel in second place in the standings.

On the bright side, Valtteri Bottas' fourth-place coupled to Hamilton's second place points haul, which means Mercedes extended their constructors' championship lead by five points to 15. It was a DNF for Kimi Raikkonen in the other Ferrari.