Lewis Hamilton produced a shock result during qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Saturday, as the Mercedes driver failed to progress past Q1.
The 37-year-old is set to start Sunday’s race from 16th on the grid.
Hamilton struggled with his car throughout the session, and in the final moments, found himself in the elimination zone.
On his final hot lap, he moved briefly into the top 15, which would see him progress through to the Q2 segment.
However, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll improved on his final lap and pushed Hamilton back to 16th, ending his day early.
It marks the first time that Hamilton has been eliminated in Q1 since the 2017 Brazilian Grand Prix – however on that occasion, it was a crash that concluded his session.
On pace alone, the last time that Hamilton did not advance into Q2 was the 2009 British Grand Prix, during his third season in the sport 13 years ago.
Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell advanced through the next stage safely.
Alexander Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Nicholas Latifi and Yuki Tsunoda joined Hamilton in the Q1 dropzone.
LOL. Funny how Russell had no problem advancing very easily.
Hamilton has benefited from having the best car by FAR for so many years, he’s being exposed now as the average driver that he is
If Mercedes doesn’t give him a dominant car soon, he will likely soon retire in shame and his entire legacy will be tarnished as these old stats come back to haunt him and will remind fans of what kind of driver he really is — mediocre on a normal day and slightly above average on a good one.
Yes indeed ! And that is showing on his 7 years of being undisputed Champion!!
Please don’t make me laugh!!
“Undisputed champion” of having a ridiculously dominant car and weak teammates. If you honestly think Hamilton would have won 6 championships at Mercedes with Alonso and Button (just to name a few) in equally competitive cars, then you are out of your mind. He beat Alonso by 1 point in the same car, and lost overall to Button in the same car over the course of three years. I will give credit where it’s due and say 2007/08 Hamilton under Ron Dennis was a beast of a driver and could have held his own (and did). After, not so much. He barely beat Rosberg in the same car at Mercedes and even lost to him in 2016 (and if it weren’t for a few mechanical failures for Rosberg in 2015, he would have lost then too). Look at Hamilton’s stats from 2009-2012. No top team wanted Hamilton during his 2012 negotiations – not even Mercedes – except Niki Lauda who persuaded others at Mercedes to take a chance with him. Obviously it worked out, but since 2013 he’s done nothing that a handful of other decent-to-good drivers couldn’t have also done in the same equipment.
Well said….wish I could cut and paste your comment every time the Hammy fanboys go on ranting about his…cough cough…dominance. Russell outpaced him today by .8 seconds, Hamilton took blame for his car setup. Hamilton has never been a technical driver like Shumacher, Lauda, Prost…he’s also never been a pure raw latent driver like Clark, Jilles Villeneuve, Senna…so what does that make him? An average driver