Now it can be said that Mercedes was not hiding during the 2022 Formula 1 preseason in Barcelona and Bahrain, since the confirmation of its poor form came in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix held on Saturday night in Jeddah Circuit.
As had not happened since the 2017 Brazilian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in the first round of qualifying. On that occasion at the Interlagos circuit, everything was the result of an accident, when he hit the protection barriers and was left out of the session, so he started at the bottom of the grid on Sunday, where he climbed to fourth place.
Photo by: Charles Coates/Motorsport Images
But now it was not an impact, but the lack of rhythm of the Englishman, who barely achieved a best lap of 1:30.343, which for a few moments put him in 15th position, in the cutoff zone, before the Canadian Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin will drop him to 16th place.
“Sorry guys,” was what Hamilton said over the radio after being told he qualified 16th, just ahead of Alex Albon in the Williams, who posted a best lap of 1m30.492s.
The seven-time world champion’s pace was just two tenths quicker than Nico Hulkenberg’s Aston Martin, ranked 18th, and a second and a half quicker than Nicholas Latifi’s Williams, which made only one attempt before cause the first red flag of the classification.
Hamilton’s teammate George Russell advanced to Q2 and was, along with Lando Norris, the only Mercedes engines to crack the top 10 in a Q1 dominated by Ferrari and Honda.
