Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in Q1 of the sprint shootout in a nightmare Saturday morning at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Mercedes star had a lap time deleted in the closing stages of the session after dipping a wheel wide at turn nine.
The Briton appeared to be safe but improving conditions saw times tumble in the dying minutes. The seven-time champion then caught traffic on his final run and pitted before completing his final lap.
Hamilton was frustrated as he entered the garage, identifying a simple reason why the squad didn’t make it through. He said: “That was really bad tyre usage man. Are we out?” Race engineer Peter Bonnington simply replied: “Yes we are out.”
It means he will start P18 for the sprint race, ending any realistic chance of scoring any of the bonus points on offer. Hamilton had not been knocked out of a Q1 session since the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
This is only the second time he has been eliminated so early on in the last six years. Ted Kravitz confirmed there were no issues with his Mercedes, stressing it was more of an issue with tyres and track positioning.
He told Sky Sports F1: “The team are also saying he got caught up with Max which delayed him. It was really track positioning in the end. Halfway through that session Lewis actually came in to change tyres, came on the radio afterwards and said ‘guys that tyre is working really well, I don’t know why we changed tyres’… That’s why Lewis was so frustrated on the radio.”
Speaking after the session, Hamilton revealed his car had the pace to be further up the grid. But the seven-time world champion waved off suggestions he was upset at the result.
He commented: “Timing wasn’t right. Sprint race doesn’t really matter anyway. I’ll just have some fun from the back. It is what it is. I don’t really feel anything about it. I wish I was still out there to be honest but not today.
“There’s nothing really to say – could easily have been much further up there but I’ll have some fun at the back.”
Mercedes suffered a double blow with George Russell eliminated in Q2 after suffering a hydraulics failure ahead of the second stage of qualifying. Engineers frantically worked to solve the issue but their efforts were futile with the ex-Williams star not getting back out on track.
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