Lewis Hamilton stumbles in Qatar! After a disappointing sprint race, he also fell during the regular qualification; the seven-time world champion only clocked the eighteenth time and had to leave the battlefield already in Q1. It’s the second weekend in a row that Hamilton fails to join the fastest fifteen. This is as rare as it is painful: only two other Ferrari drivers share this gloomy statistic.
“I generally felt better,” Hamilton sighed after the qualification to Sky Sports. “We made changes and I felt better, but I just wasn’t fast enough.” According to the statistics, it was the first time in his long career that Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 on pure speed. Despite this new debacle, he emphasized still being ‘incredibly’ grateful for the support of his fans: “Without them, I wouldn’t have survived this year.”
Gasly Rubs Salt in the Wounds
During the race weekend in Las Vegas, Hamilton also failed to advance to Q2; the Brit simply ran out of time to set a fast lap. Only two other Ferrari drivers have stranded in Q1 in two consecutive qualifications: Luca Badoer and Giancarlo Fisichella both had qualification problems in the 2009 season.
Hamilton’s performance in the sprint race bodes ill for the Grand Prix. From the pit lane, he only managed to make up one place and ended up in a meaningless seventeenth place. Ferrari’s problems did not go unnoticed by rivals. Alpine driver Pierre Gasly rubbed some salt in the wounds afterwards. “Even Pierre came up to me and said: ‘Man, your car looked really bad'”, Hamilton told DAZN. “I replied: ‘Yeah, no shit, Sherlock!'”
