Lewis Hamilton was left disappointed after finishing a dismal 18th during the qualifying for Chinese Grand Prix in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The seven-time world champion was on course to reach the second phase of qualifying but his Mercedes locked up and ran off the track, meaning he would start on the second to last row of the grid for Sunday’s race beside Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.
It was Hamilton’s worst qualifying result in two years and he revealed that big changes were made to his car after he finished second to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen during the morning’s sprint race.
“I just struggled. I made massive changes into qualifying. It wasn’t too bad in some places. I couldn’t stop in Turn 14. It is what it is,” Hamilton said after the qualifying session.
“This morning, George [Russell]×and I had very similar cars, but this afternoon we’re trying to experiment still with the car so I went one way a long way and he went the other way just to see if we could find anything.
“That’s what we need to do at the moment but it didn’t work. I’ll give it my best shot…18th is pretty bad.
“When I was making the set-up changes I was like ‘it can’t get any worse, surely’ and it did. S*** happens.”
Lewis Hamilton tumbled out of qualifying in Q1 ❌
A lock up at the Turn 14 hairpin cost him dear 😖 #F1 #ChineseGP pic.twitter.com/zqCGldgZMA
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 20, 2024
Despite, his low-starting position, Hamilton has a good chance of scoring points in Sunday’s race if his Mercedes encounters no problems.
