LEWIS GOES BANANAS IN PYJAMAS
MORE MERC TROUBLE AS FRUSTRATED HAMILTON STARTS 16TH
LEWIS HAMILTON was sensationally knocked out at the first round of qualifying and will start 16th for today’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The struggling seventime world champion failed to put in a lap good enough to haul himself into Q2 under the lights of the Jeddah street circuit.
It was the first time since Brazil in 2017 that Hamilton had fallen at the first hurdle to suffer a shock elimination and underlines the difficulties Mercedes and Hamilton have been facing with the new season.
The Brit was far from at ease with many questioning the place the car is in.
Following his display he admitted that he had been battling with the balance of the car through the whole session.
Mercedes’ struggles have been well-documented. And Hamilton and his Mercedes team have struggled to get on top of the sport’s new regulations – but no one could have predicted how far off the pace he would be.
As Sergio Perez raced to pole position, Hamilton produced one of the worst qualifying displays of his record-breaking F1 career.
A disconsolate Hamilton
– nearly seven-tenths slower than George Russell in the other Mercedes, who ended up qualifying sixth – admitted: “I am so sorry, guys.”
Russell said: “We are one team and it wasn’t a good day. We don’t have the handle on the car at the moment. We have work to do. Lewis didn’t have the confidence in the car.”
A day on from a missile strike on an oil refinery 12 miles east of the track, the drivers – some of whom signalled their intention not to take part in today’s race during an four-hour meeting on Friday night – were back on track.
And it was Perez who stole pole, edging out Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by just 0.025 seconds.
Max Verstappen, who said he had “zero grip”, was 0.261 seconds slower than his Red Bull team-mate.