Devastated Hamilton has it all to do from 13th on Monaco grid
LEWIS HAMILTON admitted he was ‘devastated’ after a lacklustre qualifying display at the Monaco Grand Prix.
The Briton will start this afternoon’s race from 13th on the grid after a ragged session yesterday. ‘I was devastated after the session to the point that I couldn’t get out of the car,’ said Hamilton.
‘So much energy goes into these weeks. When you see the other cars able to get it to work you can’t for the life of you think why you weren’t able to. It’s a mystery and none of us can understand it. We have to work on it together.’
It is a bitter blow for Hamilton in his world title fight with Sebastian Vettel. Ferrari’s German leads the championship by six points but looks sure to extend that advantage here. He starts second behind teammate Kimi Raikkonen after the
FROM FRONT PAGE 37-year-old claimed his first pole position since the 2008 French Grand Prix. Valtteri Bottas starts third and Hamilton hopes his team-mate can do him a favour and spoil Ferrari’s party. ‘I hope Valtteri wins the race,’ added Hamilton (left). ‘If he can get ahead of the Ferraris that would be great for the team because we want to beat them. I’m just disappointed I won’t be able to back him up.’
Hamilton made frequent complaints about the car. It looked hard to control at times, but despite that he appeared to be taming it, before Stoffel Vandoorne’s crash forced him to abandon his final, flying lap when he was on course to make the top-10 shootout.
‘When you don’t get into the final part of qualifying your weekend is pretty much done, so it’s really about trying to recover as much as we can,’ said Hamilton. ‘I’ll try everything I can to get into the top 10 but it’s very, very difficult to overtake here.
‘We’ll have to take some risks, but it will just be a nice Sunday drive I imagine. I don’t drive the car badly and I’m certainly not slow around here so we need to understand it.’
Hamilton was off the pace from the outset. He was only 10th quickest after the first part of qualifying, six
tenths of a second off the leaders and complaining to his engineer Pete Bonnington about ‘overheating rear tyres’.
Hamilton then endured a miserable second session when he only just avoided the barriers at Massenet after losing control, prompting him to radio in again to say ‘something is just not right with the car.’
The team called him into the pits but he lost time there, too, after an impromptu call to the weigh bridge. Hamilton’s early exit meant Jenson Button was the best-placed of the British contingent on his return to the sport.
Filling the McLaren seat temporarily vacated by Fernando Alonso, the 2009 world champion qualified ninth.
But a 15-place grid drop for making a series of engine changes earlier in the day means he starts last. ‘The penalty is a blow but I was delighted with ninth,’ he said.