During Q2, Lewis Hamilton was a remarkable dropout. The seven-time world champion did not get further than a thirteenth time. After qualifying he did not look for excuses, he said he was just too slow.
Hamilton was hampered by Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll during qualifying. They were both called to the stewards for that. However, Hamilton did not look for an excuse in this. Hamilton was just not fast enough on a drying track.
“Obviously a lot of drivers got in the way but overall we were just too slow,” Hamilton said yesterday. “I was just too slow.”
According to Hamilton, a lack of confidence in the car meant that he was not fast enough himself.
“Since the first practice session I lost confidence in the car and that made qualifying tricky,” said Hamilton. “It was difficult to get the tires in the right temperature window. I struggled with balance and grip level. Georges did a few things differently and that seemed to work better.”
“However, we know that the car functions well in a very narrow window and these things can happen when you are in this situation.”
“On my last run I did two consecutive laps and the tires overheated on the second run. I couldn’t improve my time anymore.”
“Sunday is a new challenge. Hopefully the car will function better with a lot of fuel on board and we can make some progress. This is not an easy circuit to do that but that will be our goal.”