Lewis Hamilton was left unhappy after a difficult qualifying session at the Las Vegas GP. He says that his Mercedes W15 felt different in Q3 and that he should have been on pole-position.
The Briton had a strong start to the weekend and was in contention to take pole for tomorrow’s race.
However, his strong performance fell apart in the final segment of qualifying, due to mistakes on both of his two runs. Instead, team-mate George Russell put in a strong lap for first place.
Asked by F1 TV after the session, Hamilton said: “Yeah, it didn’t work when it mattered. I tried, but it didn’t come off. I should have been on pole. At least I’ve got pace, which is a good showing over the weekend and that’s the positive to take from it.
”I think the race is kind of done. Obviously the win is out of the question… A great job from George.”
The 39-year-old said that the car had been tremendous throughout the weekend but things went wrong in the final segment as he went off at turn 12 on the first run, and then had a big snap out of turn 4 on his last one.
“I just didn’t do the job. The car felt different in Q3 and the stability was not there for some reason, but I had it in all the other sessions. But, ultimately, I didn’t put the laps together.”
Asked if the issues came from the tyres, Hamilton replied: “Yeah. I mean the tyres were difficult, that’s why we did a prep lap. I think that was the wrong call to do a prep lap on my side. And then it kind of domino effected from there.
”I think it’s tyres, but we don’t know why we’re fast this weekend. It must be something to do with temperatures.”
When asked if it was the rear end stability, he agreed: “Yeah. It had been really good up until then, and obviously you saw my pace. And then since we got to Q3, it just started snapping away.”
Hamilton will start from 10th place in tomorrow’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. His championship rival from 2021, Max Verstappen could secure his fourth title if he finishes more than three points clear of his rival Lando Norris.
