Austin (AFP) – Lewis Hamilton described his Mercedes car as a “nightmare” to drive on Saturday when a front suspension problem led to his stunning qualifying flop at the United States Formula One Grand Prix. He was eliminated in 19th place in Q1, his worst performance at one of his favourite tracks where he had never previously failed to qualify in the top five and had won a record six times and taken pole three times.
His Mercedes team-mate George Russell crashed in the final minutes of the session after qualifying sixth. Seven-time champion Hamilton said he knew something was wrong with his car on the formation lap ahead of the morning sprint race won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
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“We had some sort of failure from the formation lap, in the front suspension, and I had that throughout the sprint race – and that made the balance really difficult,” he said. “We did make changes in the direction we would’ve done yesterday, but the car was a nightmare today in qualifying. I should probably start from the pit lane, otherwise I won’t be going anywhere. It’s just a very inconsistent balance and no grip.”
Russell was unhurt after sliding off and hitting the barriers at Turn 19 to bring qualifying to a premature end. He qualified in sixth place.
“I’m not too sure what happened,” Russell said. “It was a great lap until turn 12, I was about four and a half tenths up, then lost it a bit at turn 12, similar to Lewis yesterday and then lost loads of lap time, then I went into the penultimate corner, turned in and then the thing just went on me and caught me by surprise. Maybe I was over pushing but just yeah, pretty disappointed by the damage caused to the car and all the work that will have to go on tonight.”
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