Lewis Hamilton had to settle for 18th on the grid for the Chinese Grand Prix after a mistake on his final flying lap of Q1 which condemned him to an early exit from qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton turned the air blue on live TV after he was embarrassed in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix qualifying.
The Briton made a mistake on his final flying lap of Q1. And he was made to pay as others around him improved and Hamilton dropped down to 18th on the timesheets.
It leaves the Mercedes racer with plenty of work to do to get anything more out of his trip to Shanghai on Sunday. And his frustration was evident as he swore while reacting to the disappointment during the Sky Sports broadcast of the qualifying session.
Lewis Hamilton’s voice could be heard over the action as the Briton said: “I just struggled, it is what it is. This morning, George [Russell] and I had very similar cars but we are trying to experiment still and so I went one way by a long way and he went the other. Yeah, it didn’t work. 18th is pretty bad. S**t happens.”
As the audio feed cut away from Hamilton and back to the main feed, Sky commentator David Croft had to apologise for Hamilton’s language. And Nico Rosberg alongside him gave his verdict on the disappointment his former Mercedes team-mate was feeling.
The 2016 F1 champion said: “That is seriously painful. You know the wind is coming from the back there at that part of the track. He had a great lap until then. It was really unnecessary to push the limit and as a seven-time F1 champion that is a mistake which should be unavoidable.
“It’s three metres too late and he had the brake balance too far forward. He lost at least four tenths which easily would have put him in Q2. That’s a disaster. That is a painful moment for him because the weekend is gone. With that car, you cannot get that far up anymore in the race, so it’s painful.”
Max Verstappen took an easy pole position – Red Bull’s 100th since they first entered F1 in 2005. Sergio Perez made their day even better as he qualified second behind his team-mate to secure another front-row lockout.
Earlier in the day, Verstappen had driven from fourth to comfortably win the first Sprint race of the year. Hamilton fared far better in that session, leading for a while before settling for second place behind only the Dutchman.
After that Sprint race, the Mercedes man said it was “the best result I’ve had in a long time”, and added: “I’m super, super happy and grateful. Of course we couldn’t fight the Red Bulls today. But this is a huge step, a huge improvement.”
