Lewis Hamilton arrived at the Austrian GP on the back of a good run of form. The Briton managed to finish P5 in the Qualifying session for the main race. However, his weekend came undone when he was knocked out of Q1 during the Sprint Qualifying on Saturday.
The new Sprint weekend format saw the introduction of two qualifying sessions. One for the main race, and one for the standalone Sprint race on Saturday. It was the Sprint Qualifying session that went wrong for Hamilton as he ended up finishing P18.
Coming on the back of two back-to-back podiums, the last thing that Hamilton would have expected was a Q1 exit. He was quite evidently dejected as he walked in for the FIA weigh-ins much earlier than he would have wanted to.
Lewis Hamilton falls victim to traffic in Austria
The first part of Qualifying was total chaos for Hamilton as the track limits and the traffic proved too much for him to negotiate. He started off the session well and was running P7 when he was called in for a tire change. The Briton got on to the radio and expressed his opinion, “Why are we switching? I think it’s too early to switch.”
However, after the tire change, Hamilton set a time that sent him up to P1, but only for a short while. His lap was deleted soon for violating track limits at turn 9. This made him drop down to P11.
Things got worse for Hamilton during his final lap. By the time he started the lap, he was down to P18, and desperately needed a banker lap to save himself from elimination. However, he ran into traffic during his lap which completely ruined his lap and got him eliminated from Q1.
The Briton was blocked by Verstappen as he just started out on his final lap, and that was it. Hamilton was visibly frustrated as he got on to the radio and asked, “That was a really bad time usage, man. Am I out?” Bono replied in the affirmative.
Hamilton maintains a positive front
Lewis Hamilton was having quite a resurgence until the disaster in Austria stopped him in his tracks. After starting the season on a low, Hamilton found some performance after Mercedes brought upgrades to their car in Monaco.
Thus, despite the shocking result, Hamilton tried to remain positive about the upcoming Sprint race. “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 but not today.”
It was a bad day for Mercedes at the Red Bull Ring. George Russell, in the sister car, failed to get into Q3 during both the normal as well as the Sprint Qualifying sessions. As for Hamilton, his focus will be on recovering from P18 and getting into the points.
