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.”
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.”
