Lewis Hamilton’s nightmare weekend continued at the United States Grand Prix late Saturday afternoon as he was sensationally knocked out in Q1.
In the fight for pole in Sprint qualifying, the 39-year-old was compromised by Franco Colapinto spinning in SQ3, leaving him down in P7 on the grid.
He made up a spot in the Sprint race but they had no race pace due to very high tyre degradation. The 105-time race winner was also compromised by a suspension issue.
Changes going into Grand Prix qualifying did not help. A mistake in the middle sector saw him lose over half a second, and it was game over.
If he does not start from the pits, the seven-time World Champion will go off from P18 thanks to Liam Lawson’s penalty. It’s the third time in the ground effect era he got knocked out in Q1.
Hamilton was left baffled and confused post-qualifying.
“It’s been pretty terrible. The car felt great yesterday, so I obviously came really optimistic for today.
“Something failed in the front suspension, literally as we pulled away from the line for the formation lap [of the Sprint], and I had that through the race.
“They figured that out, and they changed the corner, and it just felt like a mess, obviously.
“This shouldn’t happen, and it’s obviously not planned.”
Hamilton has had a tough year in qualifying, trailing Russell 5-14 in Grand Prix qualifying.
The 104-time polesitter denied that he is facing a mental barrier, going back to the car problems he faced ahead of qualifying.
“Well, I mean I was about to qualify pole yesterday, so it’s not a mental problem.
“When the suspension’s failing, and we’re braking, and things aren’t coming together […] today, honestly, I can’t explain.
“You will have to ask the team what happened with the suspension.
“But I know the guys are working as hard as they can. They did the change.”
With this weekend looking to be done regarding any serious points, Hamilton was asked about Mexico and whether he can look forward to that with some encouragement over the updates.
“I mean, any performance we bring is positive.
“Yesterday, all of a sudden, we were looking really quick. I don’t know where that went.
“We’ll keep pushing.”
Needing to make up eight spots just to get into the top 10, Hamilton vowed to fight on like he did in his karting days with subpar equipment.
“Yeah, I mean, there’s not going to be a lot going on.
“But I mean I started in karts with a pretty bad go-kart and used to come through the field, so I’ll see if I can do that tomorrow.”
