Autobayng News Team
Lewis Hamilton was despondent after dropping out of qualifying in the first round again at Yas Marina.
The Ferrari driver failed to progress beyond the first round of qualifying in all of the final three grands prix this year, as well as for the sprint race in Losail last week.
He missed the cut for Q2 by just eight thousandths of a second today. He was on course to improve on his final lap before losing time in the final sector.
“I think most of the lap was good enough to get through,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “I just didn’t finish it.”
Hamilton missed some running in final practice after crashing at turn nine. He said “the team did a mega job” to repair his car before qualifying. “They deserved better, for sure.”
His qualifying session began well as he briefly held fifth place. “We made lots of changes and the car felt great today,” he told Sky afterwards.
He apologised to the team on his radio as he drove back to the pits following his elimination.
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Hamilton has sharply criticised his driving on several occasions this year and recently said very little when asked by media about his performance in qualifying. He admitted after today’s qualifying session he was deeply frustrated to have qualified so poorly again.
“I don’t have the words to describe the feeling I have inside,” said Hamilton. “There’s an unbearable amount of anger and rage. There’s not really much I can say about it.”
His team mate Charles Leclerc took fifth on the grid. Team principal Frederic Vasseur said Hamilton’s weekend was also compromised by the fact he did not participate in first practice.
“It’s been difficult for Lewis because he did not drive in FP1, having given up his seat to Arthur [Leclerc] and then came the crash halfway through FP3,” said Vasseur. “In this kind of situation, where there are only two tenths separating P4 and P18 if you miss so much running, it’s too much to recover from. You can’t produce a performance based just on FP2.”
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