Lewis shock before Schu crash horror
LEWIS HAMILTON will start a lowly 16th in today’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as Mick Schumacher was airlifted to hospital following a terrifying 160mph crash.
As Sergio Perez raced to pole position under the thousands of bulbs that light up the Jeddah street circuit, seven-time world champion Hamilton failed to make it out of Q1 in one of the worst qualifying displays of his recordbreaking Formula One career.
Hamilton and his Mercedes team have struggled to get on top of the sport’s new regulations but nobody would have predicted the grid’s most decorated driver would fall at the first hurdle.
A disconsolate Hamilton – nearly seven tenths slower than George Russell in the other Mercedes, who ended up qualifying sixth – said: “I am so sorry, guys.”
Charles Leclerc will start second ahead of Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz with world champion Max Verstappen fourth.
With two minutes of Q1 remaining, Hamilton, who started from pole and won in Jeddah last year, said: “Can’t seem to improve, man...are we at risk right now?”
His race engineer, Peter Bonnington replied: “Affirm, we are at risk.”
And although Hamilton improved with his final run to temporarily move up to 15th and out of the danger zone,aston Martin’s Lance Stroll beat his time to cause a shock result.
It marked the first time Hamilton had failed to get out of Q1 on pure speed since the 2009 British Grand Prix.
The focus soon turned to Schumacher following the 23-year-old German’s terrifying crash.
Mick, the son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, lost control of his Haas as he rode the kerbs through Turn 12 and slammed into the concrete wall on the opposite side of the circuit.
He was taken to the medical centre and then airlifted to hospital for “further precautionary check-ups”.