Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff spotted in heated exchange after F1 qualifying nightmare

Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff appeared to be holding heated talks in the Mercedes garage shortly after the Brit crashed out of Q2 at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. It was another nightmare session for Hamilton who was visibly battling porpoising issues, and he will have to settle for P13 in Saturday’s qualifying sprint race at Imola. 

Hamilton and Russell were both dumped out of Q2 after Carlos Sainz’s crash brought out a red flag, which subsequently allowed rain to pepper the track. The pair had only just made it through Q1 by the skin of their teeth after a mad scramble to claw themselves out of the bottom five. 

The unfortunate end to Q2 capped off a dismal start to the race weekend for the Silver Arrows, and Wolff appears to be feeling the pressure. After Hamilton got out of the car with P13 rubber-stamped for Saturday’s qualifying sprint, camera footage showed the team principal in a heated exchange with the seven-time world champion. 

Although the footage did not make clear exactly what was being said, the perception of the incident was almost unanimous. Journalist Lukas Weese said on Twitter: “That was a testy exchange between Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff,” while @_JTD28 added: “Wolff wasn’t telling Hamilton that he loved him there.”

Things were not much better for George Russell either, as the red flag meant he was unable to improve on his Q2 lap time which left him in P11. The two Silver Arrows will therefore start Saturday’s sprint a fair way down the pack with an intimidating amount of ground to make up on the grid’s other heavyweights. 

“There are things that we should have done and didn’t do. Anyway, we will work as hard as we can to move up in the sprint race. Hopefully tomorrow is better, weather-wise, and who knows, maybe we can work our way forwards.”

More red flags and drama in Q3 saw Max Verstappen claim pole position for the Saturday sprint with Charles Leclerc just behind. Lando Norris, Kevin Magnussen and Fernando Alonso make up the top five ahead of what promises to be another dramatic showdown.