Surprisingly, Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 qualifying at the Saudi Grand Prix for the first time since 2017, however he benefited from Mick Schumacher’s non-participation to gain a position and start from 16th.
The one from Mercedes opted for a different strategy from the rest of the grid and went out on the track with the hard tires, surrounded by many medium compounds. After a difficult start, little by little he improved his pace and gained positions, reaching sixth position after the start of the safety car.
When it was time for him to stop in the pits, Hamilton lost positions again and could no longer find the rhythm of his first session with hard, having to settle for a tenth position, adding a point that left a rather bitter taste in his mouth.
After the race, the Mercedes driver was disappointed: “We’ll have to talk to the team. It’s devastating, but at least I’ve scored a point and both cars got points for the team.”
“I don’t feel like we had many changes since the last race (Bahrain), it’s only been a few days. What I know is that I couldn’t keep up with the Haas today, whatever their performance, they passed me when I overtook Kevin Magnussen early in the race.”
“So we’ve got a lot of work to do, but I know I have a great team and we’ll just keep our heads down and try to improve,” the Briton added.
Hamilton confirmed that despite their differences in performance, his feelings were much better on the hard tire than on the medium in the final part of the race.
“At the beginning of the race I struggled with the tire temperature and then it started to improve a bit and I started to go faster than the guys in front.
“I was pushing, I think I was doing about the same times as George , who had brand new hard (30+ lap Hamilton), so I was feeling really good at the time, but then it all went skew again at the end. “, he concluded.
After this race, Hamilton leaves Jeddah with 16 points in fifth position in the constructors’ championship, six less than his teammate, a George Russell who showed a much more competitive pace throughout the weekend in Saudi Arabia.
