Lewis Hamilton says he doesn’t know where his qualifying pace has gone and is looking forward to the end of his Mercedes career ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix.
George Russell qualified on the front row for both the sprint race and Sunday’s feature race in Qatar, each time being within a tenth of a second of the outright fastest time. Hamilton, meanwhile, was 0.4 seconds behind Russell in sprint qualifying, and slightly further away on Saturday evening, and says he doesn’t believe the lack of power is causing the gap.
“Well, I mean, I’m slow there,” Hamilton said. “I’m half a second behind my teammate in the same car… It’s been happening all year.”
“I know I still have it, but the car isn’t going any faster. I’m sure I still have it. It’s not a question that comes to mind. I’m looking forward to the end.
“We restored the balance, so it was much better… quite an easy session. The car felt decent.”
Hamilton – who will make his final start for Mercedes at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix next weekend – also told Sky Sports he felt his laps in qualifying were competitive at the time, before completing the attempts and seeing the rankings.
“I can’t explain why I’m half a second behind my teammate,” he said. “It’s never happened in my career. I can’t explain that. What I can say is that overall the car felt great to me. I can’t really add much more. I really gave it my all and the laps generally feel good, but when I cross the line it’s just slow.”
The seven-time world champion was more competitive in the early part of the sprint before later fading and losing to Charles Leclerc, but he suggests he was balancing the risk and reward for a race that yields far fewer points than the Grand Prix.
“It was okay; it was nice and close,” he said. “I didn’t defend; I should have defended, but I didn’t. He was a little faster than me and would probably come by anyway. If I am in the same position again tomorrow, I will definitely put up more of a fight.”
