Lewis Hamilton says that Mercedes must be better with its time regarding how it prepares for qualifying laps.
The seven-time World Champion endured a difficult Saturday in Miami, dropping out of the qualifying session in Q2.
Hamilton is set to start Sunday’s race from 13th on the grid, his lowest starting position since last year’s round from Imola.
“It was a difficult session,” he said. “We’re not that quick so we really needed perfect laps. It was difficult to get into a rhythm for us.
“At the beginning, I had that issue with Magnussen going into the last corner,” he added, an incident that the stewards looked into before opting against taking action.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff stated that its performance swings are “unacceptable” as it has shown moments of promise this year, most notably in Melbourne where it scored a podium.
Amid the tricky qualifying session, Hamilton says that there were times during the outing when the car felt strong.
“There were a couple of decent moments in there where I thought the car was good, Q1 end of the run time wasn’t too bad but then we were at the back end of the top 10.”
Ultimately, he asserted that being at the rear of the pack for the final hot laps cost him a chance at a lap good enough to advance into Q3.
“In the last one, I was the last in the pack,” he said. I tried to get temperatures into the tyres but I was at the back of the queue and everyone slowed down into the last corner so I lost all temperature in the tyres and I couldn’t do the lap.
“When you are fast, you can sit back more and be more relaxed and go at the last minute. You can take your time.
“You know it’s likely you are going to make it easily into Q3. But we know it’s very hard and there’s a 50/50 chance to get into Q3.
“We need to be better with our time. It is done. I will get my head down tomorrow and see what I can do from 13th to god knows where.”
