Lewis Hamilton at a loss to explain his Mercedes at Abu Dhabi GP after second early qualifying exit in a row
“Honestly, at this point it is what it is,” says Lewis Hamilton after a second successive Q2 exit in final qualy of the season; George Russell fourth with rivals Ferrari second and 16th; watch the Abu Dhabi GP live on Sky Sports F1 at 1pm.
Lewis Hamilton struggles to explain his problems in qualifying, insisting there is ‘something not right’ with his car this weekend.
Lewis Hamilton felt something was amiss with his Mercedes at the Abu Dhabi GP after he failed to make the top 10 in qualifying for the second successive weekend, with team boss Toto Wolff admitting he is “fed up” with trying to explain the W14’s unpredictable form ahead of its final race outing.
On a weekend they are in a tight battle with Ferrari for second place in the Constructors’ Championship, with Mercedes heading into Sunday’s season-ending race with a slender four-point advantage, they qualified fourth with George Russell and 11th with Hamilton under the Yas Marina floodlights after the former had impressively topped final practice in the earlier day-time session.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc qualified on the front row but one solace for Mercedes is that although Hamilton dropped out in Q2, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz failed to clear Q1 and will start 16th.
For Hamilton, it was fresh frustration in qualifying after he also finished only 11th in last week’s corresponding session in Las Vegas.
“Not great. Just struggling with balance,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
“I don’t have any answers. Honestly, at this point it is what it is.
“We set our cars up the same but they don’t read the same so there’s something not right on our side. I’m sure we will deep dive into it but I’ve been off all weekend, we have struggled with the car.”
Lewis Hamilton was knocked out of Q2 by Mercedes teammate George Russell at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
It is the first time since 2014 that Hamilton has failed to make the top 10 in qualifying for two races running.
“Two 11ths…it takes some good going for me not to get into Q3, so I will try and move my way up [in the race],” he added.
Unlike Russell, who has looked the more comfortable Mercedes driver all weekend, Wolff said Hamilton had “just no grip” throughout Saturday’s running.
Russell had impressively topped final practice in the warmer day-time conditions but slipped to fourth in the qualifying hour, 0.343s off the pace.
“FP3 was even, I would say, dominant. Norris could have probably been there, and would have in qualifying by the way,” said Wolff, Mercedes’ team principal.
“It just didn’t come together. Probably that’s what was in the car. Expectations were higher.
“I’m fed up with having explanations on why it didn’t go well. We were good in the hot, we weren’t in the cold. Previous days it has been the other way around.
“I’m happy this was the last qualifying of the season and we will come with a new car [in 2024].”
