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Hamilton ‘looking forward to the end’ after qualifying woes in Qatar

Lewis Hamilton says he doesn’t know where his qualifying pace has gone and that he’s looking forward to the end of his Mercedes career ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix. George Russell qualified on the front row for both the Sprint and Sunday’s main …

Lewis Hamilton says he doesn’t know where his qualifying pace has gone and that he’s looking forward to the end of his Mercedes career ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix.

George Russell qualified on the front row for both the Sprint and Sunday’s main race in Qatar, on each occasion being within a tenth of a second of the outright fastest time. Hamilton, meanwhile, was 0.4s off Russell in Sprint qualifying, and then slightly further off on Saturday night, and says he doesn’t believe it’s a lack of ability that is causing the gap.

“Well, I mean I’m slow out there,” Hamilton said. “I’m half a second off my teammate in the same car… It’s been happening all year.”

“I know I’ve still got it, it’s just the car won’t go any faster. I definitely know I’ve got it still. It’s not a question in my mind. Looking forward to the end.

“We [pretty much] fixed the balance, so it was much better… [It was] a pretty straightforward session. The car was feeling pretty decent.”

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Hamilton — who will make his final start for Mercedes at next weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix — also told Sky Sports that he felt his laps in qualifying were competitive at the time, before he completed the attempts and saw the standings.

“I can’t explain why I am half a second off my teammate,” he said. “It’s never happened in my career. I can’t explain that. What I can say is that the car felt generally fine for me. There’s not really much more I can add. I’ve given it absolutely everything and the laps are generally feeling good but I come across the line and it’s just slow.”

The seven-time world champion was more competitive in the first part of the Sprint before fading later on and losing out to Charles Leclerc, but he suggests he was balancing the risk and reward for a race that pays far fewer points than the grand prix.

“It was all right; it was [a fair fight], nice and close,” he said. “I didn’t defend; I should have defended but I didn’t. He was a bit quicker than me and probably going to come by anyways. If I’m in the same position again tomorrow, I’ll put more of a fight up, for sure.”

Russell predicts exciting Qatar GP after McLaren’s ‘infuriating’ Sprint race tactics

George Russell is expecting an exciting Qatar Grand Prix starting alongside Max Verstappen on the front row, after being infuriated by McLaren’s defensive teamwork in the Sprint. Verstappen secured pole position ahead of Russell by just 0.055s on …

George Russell is expecting an exciting Qatar Grand Prix starting alongside Max Verstappen on the front row, after being infuriated by McLaren’s defensive teamwork in the Sprint.

Verstappen secured pole position ahead of Russell by just 0.055s on Saturday night, turning around what had been a tough weekend up to that point as he was uncompetitive in the Sprint. Russell also started on the front row in the shorter race but saw the McLaren drivers work together to keep him at bay, and he wants a different type of battle on Sunday.

“I’m just excited,” Russell said. “Hopefully we can have a proper race rather than this team orders stuff. It’s going to be a good race. I think we’ll all be going for it.

“It’s actually great that Max is in the mix as well. I was really surprised at their turnaround because they looked really off the pace yesterday, off the pace this morning. And obviously they were both in Q3 and Max on pole, so I think we’ve got a good race on our hands.”

Oscar Piastri got past Russell at the start of the Sprint before leader Lando Norris give Piastri DRS for the majority of the race, helping defend from Russell on the pit straight. Russell says the approach was understandable but did not provide a good spectacle in his opinion.

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“It was obviously so frustrating every lap, Lando backing up, giving Oscar the DRS. I understand why they did that. But when you’re out here, you’re fighting, you want to give it everything, and you want to put a race on for the fans, it was just pretty infuriating. But nevertheless, it was P3 and this afternoon is going to be the important one.”

Russell was also critical of some of Piastri’s defensive driving in the Sprint and believes he could have fought for victory to back up his win in Las Vegas last weekend.

“Obviously, we went wheel-to-wheel and into Turn 1 on one of the laps,” he said. “I was on the inside and he closed the door pretty aggressively. We made contact. We were lucky to both stay in the race there, and then a few laps later I committed to the inside and he pulled across pretty late. When you’re doing, you know, 330kph, 320kph into Turn 1, and there’s a big speed difference and there’s a closing of the door so late, it’s pretty sketchy.

“But it’s just the Sprint. I take a lot of positives from the result because I think if Lando wasn’t being a team player, I think we’d have got past Oscar and could have had a good fight with Lando.”

Russell at a loss to explain heavy Mexico City FP2 crash

George Russell says he doesn’t understand the reason for his heavy crash in FP2 at the Mexico City Grand Prix that left Mercedes with a major rebuild overnight. For the second successive weekend, Russell crashed heavily and had to be cleared from …

George Russell says he doesn’t understand the reason for his heavy crash in FP2 at the Mexico City Grand Prix that left Mercedes with a major rebuild overnight.

For the second successive weekend, Russell crashed heavily and had to be cleared from the medical center at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez due to the size of the impact. He was quickest in the first practice session but then lost control over the curb at Turn 8 early in FP2 and spun into the wall at high speed.

“Honestly, don’t know what happened,” Russell said. “The car started bouncing on the ground and before I had a chance to catch it, I was already spinning.

“A lot of work for the guys tonight again. It seems like it’s one thing after another at the moment. It’s frustrating. [In] FP1 we were very strong, very fast. Tried to take the same line, cutting that corner, and for whatever reason on this occasion in FP2 the thing just started going on me.”

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Despite the crash, Russell believes it wasn’t as costly as usual due to the elongated tire test format of FP2, and he hopes to be able to recover during the final practice session on Saturday.

“I mean FP2… because it was the Pirelli tire test, it wasn’t hugely valuable in terms of what you learn for the race weekend,” he said. “Obviously missed out on laps. FP3 is going to be important; just hope we can get the car fixed.”

Teammate Lewis Hamilton also didn’t have a normal start to the weekend as Kimi Antonelli drove in his place in FP1 and then the tire test took over FP2, but he sees some encouraging signs from the running he completed.

“It’s a tire test so we couldn’t change anything on the car – it was the same from the beginning to the end,” Hamilton said. “I know what we need to fix. Whether or not we can actually do that, we’ll see. But it didn’t feel terrible; little bit off the front guys. Got some work to do tonight.”

Suspension issue triggers miserable day at COTA for Hamilton, Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton says a suspension problem ahead of the Sprint race was the catalyst for a “terrible” day as he dropped out in Q1 at the United States Grand Prix. Mercedes looked quick throughout the Sprint Shootout on Friday evening but a yellow flag …

Lewis Hamilton says a suspension problem ahead of the Sprint race was the catalyst for a “terrible” day as he dropped out in Q1 at the United States Grand Prix.

Mercedes looked quick throughout the Sprint Shootout on Friday evening but a yellow flag on Hamilton’s final lap prevented him from having a chance of setting the fastest time. A largely uncompetitive run to sixth place in the Sprint was put down to a suspension issue, but Hamilton believes there was an issue with the car’s configuration after that as he finished 19th in qualifying.

“It’s been pretty terrible,” Hamilton said. “The car felt great yesterday, so obviously came really optimistic for today. Something failed on the front suspension literally as we pulled away from the line for the formation lap, and I had that through the race. They figured that out, they changed the corner, and it felt like a mess, obviously, through qualifying.”

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With the Sprint weekend taking on a different format that gives teams just one practice session, Hamilton said the failure is frustrating given the pace Mercedes has shown.

“I don’t know what the result… This shouldn’t happen, and it’s obviously not planned,” he said.

“I was about to qualify [on] pole yesterday, so it’s not a mental problem. When the suspension is failing or breaking, and things aren’t coming together, I mean today … you’ll have to ask the team what happened with the suspension. I know the guys are working as hard as they can; they did the change.

“Any performance we bring is positive. All of a sudden [yesterday] we were looking really quick. I don’t know where that went, but we’ll keep pushing.”

Hamilton says a fightback drive is unlikely in Sunday’s race, as he will start from 18th due to Liam Lawson’s grid penalty.

“There’s not going to be a lot going on. 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.”

Norris pinches U.S. GP pole after Russell crash ends qualifying

Lando Norris took pole position from Max Verstappen after a high-speed crash for George Russell truncated qualifying before the final laps could be completed. Russell’s crash compounded a woeful afternoon for Mercedes, coming after three-time …

Verstappen had topped all three qualifying segments on his way to what looked likely to be a largely straightforward pole before a peach of a lap from title challenger Norris put the McLaren car on provisional pole by 0.031s. It was the most convincing lap the Briton has strung together all weekend, having lamented his modestly upgraded McLaren hasn’t had the pace to match Verstappen or the Ferrari drivers this weekend.

Verstappen was first of the pair to return to the track for the final runs of the hour and blitzed the first split, setting a purple time to put himself 0.172s ahead. Norris, meanwhile, couldn’t improve on his own time at the first interval.

The duel was interrupted by Russell, who lost control of his car high speed at Turn 19 and spun into the barriers. With both Verstappen and Norris behind him on the track, both drivers were forced to abandon their laps, allowing Norris to claim an unexpected pole. It’s the Briton’s fifth pole from the last seven grands prix and keeps his slim title hopes alive, now trailing Verstappen by 54 points after the morning’s Sprint.

“It was a beautiful lap,” he said. “We’ve been on the back foot pretty much all weekend. I had to do something, and today I did that.

“I was not going to go much quicker than what I did — when you just do a lap and think, ‘It’s going to be tough to beat that.’ I put everything out on the line. It’s what we needed to do.”

Verstappen rued a mistake at Turn 19 on his first lap that left him needing his second lap to take pole but was nonetheless pleased by his updated car’s performance.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish the lap, otherwise we had a really good shot,” he said. “We’re on the front row at least, and we had the potential to be first, so that’s very good.

“It seemed that we were competitive, so we made some minor changes on the car, which felt nice. … I hope that will also be positive for tomorrow.”

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Carlos Sainz also had a shot at pole spoiled, having been on a much better second lap after an unconvincing first run, fractionally up on Norris’s time in the first sector and less than 0.1s down in the second before Russell’s crash. The Spaniard qualified fifth for the sprint but finished the short race a punchy second and believes third on the grid would give him the chance to improve that result in the grand prix.

“That was the target, to do a step in qualifying compared to yesterday,” he said. “Yesterday we were P5, today we are P3, so we’ve done a good step in the right direction.

“I think we’ve done some good progress. We should be in the fight tomorrow.”

His teammate, Charles Leclerc, qualified fourth ahead of Oscar Piastri and the crashed-out Russell.

Pierre Gasly had an impressive session to qualify seventh ahead of Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen. Sergio Perez will start 10th after having his first lap deleted for exceeding track limits, though the time would have been good enough for only eighth, having been 0.9s slower than his teammate’s front-row effort.

Yuki Tsunoda will start 11th, missing out on Q1 by just 0.045s.

Nico Hulkenberg, having qualified sixth for the sprint, managed just 12th for the grand prix after locking up into the first corner and spoiling his lap. Esteban Ocon will line up 13th ahead of Lance Stroll in 14th, both drivers shaded by more than 0.3s by their Q3-bound teammates.

Liam Lawson qualified 15th on his first full-time grand prix weekend without a time in Q2, having carried a back-of-grid engine penalty into the session. The Kiwi was impressively quicker than teammate Tsunoda in Q1 and was deployed to give the sister car a slipstream in Q2 before returning to his garage.

Williams teammates Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto, eliminated in Q1, will therefore line up 15th and 16th ahead of Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas in 17th.

Hamilton will start 18th in by far his worst qualifying result at COTA. The Mercedes driver, having never qualified lower than fifth at the Austin circuit, was only 0.121s short of a spot in Q2 but a massive 0.618s slower than teammate Russell and 1.108s off top spot in the opening qualifying stanza. The damage was almost all done in the middle sector, where he lost half a second to the front-runners running wide at Turn 12.

Zhou Guanyu will start 19th for Sauber ahead of the penalized Lawson.

Car ‘came alive’ in Singapore after poor qualifying runs – Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton says his qualifying form has been a struggle this year but that his car came alive as he managed to secure a top three start at the Singapore Grand Prix. McLaren’s Lando Norris beat Max Verstappen to pole position, with Hamilton …

Lewis Hamilton says his qualifying form has been a struggle this year but that his car came alive as he managed to secure a top three start at the Singapore Grand Prix.

McLaren’s Lando Norris beat Max Verstappen to pole position, with Hamilton qualifying third, just over 0.3s adrift of his fellow Brit. Hamilton says he was finding the handling of his car difficult throughout the weekend until qualifying started, but then had far more confidence and was able to threaten the higher positions.

“Oh man, qualifying has been a disaster for me all year long and I’ve just been working and working and working trying to get myself back up there, and all of a sudden the car came alive in qualifying for the first time in a long time,” Hamilton said. “It was a little bit of a shame because we were getting into rhythm — it was the same for all of us, but getting that lap at the end was a little bit tricky.

“I think there was maybe a tiny bit more left in the car, but I’m really grateful for it. And the mechanics, we’ve been moving up and down on balance, we’ve changed everything this weekend on each day, and the mechanics have just been faultless, so I want to say a big thank you to them, and I hope that we’re in a good position to fight for the front tomorrow.”

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Although Norris had a clear advantage, Hamilton was a little over 0.1s away from Verstappen’s time and he says if he had put together a better final lap he could have beaten the Red Bull.

“I’m not saying it’s a surprise, but through the weekend so far, we were looking, well, I was looking particularly very poor,” he said. “This morning and all of yesterday, we were 1.2s off these guys. We arrived with a car that was massively understeery, and we just couldn’t dial anything in. No matter what we did, nothing changed.

“Made changes overnight, came here today, pretty much the same thing, and I was definitely shocked to see that we were still 1.2s behind Lando again. We just kept our heads down, kept not giving up, and we made some more changes and got into this session, and it was like night and day. Such a big difference.

“The car was all of a sudden alive, and I was able to go where I wanted to go. It was looking really strong throughout qualifying and I think [the crash in Q3 made it difficult] for all of us to put that final lap together.

“I think my lap was also nothing special — very difficult to get the tires perfect and not overslide them. I had a lot of snaps, so I think with a better job, maybe we could have been front row … but I don’t know whether or not we could have beaten [Norris] today. Still really, really happy.”

Russell calls DSQ ‘heartbreaking’ after losing Spa victory

George Russell described his disqualification from the Belgian Grand Prix as “heartbreaking” after seeing victory taken away from him after the race. Mercedes originally secured a 1-2 with Russell pulling off an audacious one-stop strategy to beat …

George Russell described his disqualification from the Belgian Grand Prix as “heartbreaking” after seeing victory taken away from him after the race.

Mercedes originally secured a 1-2 with Russell pulling off an audacious one-stop strategy to beat Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri in a thrilling finish. Post-race scrutineering then found Russell’s car to be 1.5 kg underweight and, as that is a technical infringement, it automatically leads to a disqualification from the results.

“Heartbreaking…” Russell said. “We came in 1.5 kg underweight and have been disqualified from the race. We left it all on the track today and I take pride in crossing the line first. There will be more to come.”

Speaking before he was disqualified, Russell said the decision to one-stop was a spontaneous one that had not been considered ahead of the race.

“We spoke so much this morning about the two-stop, the three-stop, but suddenly the tires, the car felt really, really good. I got into this groove, and especially when I got into the lead, there were no back markers in front, no other cars in front — it kind of felt like driving a simulator. It was quite weird.

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“I was looking at the gap to Lewis and the rate he was catching me, and I just thought there’s no reason why we can’t stay out here and do this one stop and try and make it work.”

Russell’s disqualification is the first time a driver has lost a victory for a technical infringement after the race since Michael Schumacher at Spa-Francorchamps 30 years ago, and is one the team did not dispute.

“We have to take our disqualification on the chin,” team principal Toto Wolff said. “We have clearly made a mistake and need to ensure we learn from it. We will go away, evaluate what happened and understand what went wrong. To lose a 1-2 is frustrating and we can only apologize to George who drove such a strong race.

“Lewis is of course promoted to P1; he was the fastest guy on the two-stop and is a deserving winner.”

Russell’s car found underweight, loses Spa win to Hamilton

George Russell has been disqualified from the results of the Belgian Grand Prix because his car was underweight, handing teammate Lewis Hamilton victory. Russell originally won the race on an audacious one-stop strategy, beating Hamilton in a 1-2 …

George Russell has been disqualified from the results of the Belgian Grand Prix because his car was underweight, handing teammate Lewis Hamilton victory.

Russell originally won the race on an audacious one-stop strategy, beating Hamilton in a 1-2 finish, with Oscar Piastri third. However, the FIA found Russell’s car to be 1.5 kg underweight when it was weighed after the race, and Mercedes acknowledged it had no mitigating factor that could explain the discrepancy.

“After the race, car No. 63 was weighed and its weight was 798.0 kg, which is the minimum weight required by Technical Regulations Article 4.1,” a report from the FIA’s technical delegate read. “After this, fuel was drained out of the car and 2.8 liters of fuel were removed.

“The car was not fully drained according to the draining procedure submitted by the team in their legality documents as TR Article 6.5.2 is fulfilled. The car was weighed again on the FIA inside and outside scales and the weight was 796.5 kg. The calibration of the outside and inside scales was confirmed and witnessed by the competitor.”

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After a brief hearing with the stewards, the penalty was confirmed just over two hours after the end of the race.

“During the hearing the team representative confirmed that the measurement is correct and that all required procedures were performed correctly,” the stewards’ decision read. “The team also acknowledged that there were no mitigating circumstances and that it was a genuine error by the team.

“The Stewards determine that Article 4.1 of the FIA Formula 1 Technical Regulations has been breached and therefore the standard penalty for such an infringement needs to be applied.”

Russell’s one-stop strategy saw him complete 34 laps on his final set of tires and, prior to the disqualification being confirmed, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted it could have led to more rubber being used that reduced the weight of the car.

“I think it’s a one-stop that…you expect loss of rubber, maybe more, but it’s no excuse,” Wolff said. “If the stewards deem it to be a breach of regulations, then it is what it is, and we have to learn from that. As a team, given there are more positives to take for George, that’s a massive blow for a driver when his childhood dream is to win these races, then to be told it’s taken away, but he’s going to win many more.”

The disqualification moves all drivers up one place in the classification, with Hamilton now the winner ahead of Piastri, with Charles Leclerc promoted to third place and a podium position.

Hamilton’s Silverstone win ‘like a little fairytale’ – Wolff

Lewis Hamilton’s victory in his last British Grand Prix for Mercedes is “like a little fairytale,” according to team principal Toto Wolff. Mercedes failed to win a race in 2023 while Hamilton’s own drought extended to the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand …

Lewis Hamilton’s victory in his last British Grand Prix for Mercedes is “like a little fairytale,” according to team principal Toto Wolff.

Mercedes failed to win a race in 2023 while Hamilton’s own drought extended to the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but after George Russell’s victory in Austria it was Hamilton’s turn to stand on the top step again at Silverstone. The win is Hamilton’s ninth at his home race, and comes before he joins Ferrari in 2025, something Wolff admits is special.

“It was so difficult over the last two years [not really finding any] performance; we couldn’t give the drivers a car that was able to go for the victories,” Wolff said. “To make him win again, the British Grand Prix, in his last race for Mercedes here, it’s almost like a little fairytale.”

Wolff admits it was a challenging race to handle with the changing weather conditions, but also feels a sense of frustration after polesitter Russell was forced to retire with a water system issue.

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“It was difficult. We were really controlling the pace at the beginning and that was very encouraging,” he said. “Then it started to rain and you see the massive performance that the McLaren had, and they were simply in the sweet spot of the tire. But we came back in those conditions and I think we had it under control.

“It’s just a shame we DNF’d with George; he had the pace and we let him down here with a water leak. It’s just not great but the overarching result here with Lewis, last British Grand Prix… George is going to win one.”

Hamilton was particularly emotional after the race and, to Wolff, the latest victory feels like a long time coming, particularly after the seven-time world champion revealed he had doubts over whether he’d win another race.

“It’s clear our relationship goes back a long time,” Wolff said. “Each of us has suffered at various stages. He’s been there for me and most recently I’ve tried to do my contribution to his doubting at times. That’s why it feels really good that he’s been able to put all the negative thoughts, all the negativity aside, and come up with this performance. I think it’s a weight off his shoulders.”

Hamilton admits shedding tears after fearing he’d never win again

Lewis Hamilton admits he was so emotional after his victory in the British Grand Prix because has had moments where he thought he would never win another race. Mercedes locked out the front row at Silverstone and Hamilton took the lead from teammate …

Lewis Hamilton admits he was so emotional after his victory in the British Grand Prix because has had moments where he thought he would never win another race.

Mercedes locked out the front row at Silverstone and Hamilton took the lead from teammate George Russell in the first part of the race when light rain saw the frontrunners trying to keep lapping on slick tires. As the rain intensified and the field switched to intermediates, Hamilton dropped behind Lando Norris before regaining the lead with a well-timed pit stop for slicks, securing his first victory since 2021 — a run of 945 days.

“It feels different to previous races, particularly…where you’re having race after race after race, or seasons where you’re having multiple wins,” Hamilton said. “I think with the adversity we’ve gone through as a team, and that I personally felt that I’ve experienced — those challenges — [it’s a] constant challenge, like we all have, to get up out of bed every day and give it our best shot.

“There are so many times when you feel like your best shot is not good enough, and [there’s] the disappointment sometimes that you can feel. We live in a time where mental health is such a serious issue, and I’m not going to lie, I’ve not been… that I have experienced that.

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“There’s definitely been moments where [I] thought that ‘this was it,’ that it was never going to happen again, so to have this feeling coming across the line… I think honestly, I’ve never cried coming from a win. It just came out of me. It’s a really, really great feeling. I’m very, very grateful for it.”

Hamilton’s emotions were clear over team radio after the race, crying as he spoke to his team and telling his race engineer Pete Bonington “I love you, Bono.” The nine-time British Grand Prix winner says the win means more to him emotionally given where he is in his career, after becoming the first driver to win a race in Formula 1 after making his 300th start.

“Yeah, it does, because…I’ve had my parents come to the race here and there,” he said. “My mum was there when I won a championship, my dad was there when I won a championship. It’s always been just at a different point of life. First world championship was incredible, but it was really difficult to absorb it all, [at the age I was].

“I think this weekend, just within life — your parents are getting older, you’re traveling so much, time with family is a constant challenge. My niece and nephew are growing up and growing out their cuteness, but I had them here this weekend, and we all try to be there for each other, even at a distance. But to have them there…

“I know I’ve always had their support, but to be able to see them there and have them share that experience — they wanted to be there for my last British Grand Prix with this team that has been so incredible to us. Mercedes supported me since I was 13, so it’s definitely meant the most today, to have them there and be able to share it with them.”