Lewis Hamilton disappointed over persistent trend of poor Saturdays after Azerbaijan GP Qualifying
Despite Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton being a prior winner at Baku, he qualified seventh owing to his subpar trend of qualifying performances.
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Lewis Hamilton (Via: Imago)
The F1 paddock has recently focused on the fight going on between McLaren and Red Bull. On the other hand, Mercedes often appeared as the car to beat at a few tracks this year, but the German marque’s performance has been swinging up and down every race weekend. This can be witnessed by how Lewis Hamilton has been struggling persistently in qualifying trim as his teammate George Russell further extended his lead in the qualifying head-to-head at the Azerbaijan GP qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton is one of the few drivers that have won multiple races this season. Despite his performance in races, qualifying has been an entirely different story for the seven-time champion. The 39-year-old has often been observed lighting up the time sheets during free practice sessions but has been unable to continue this form into qualifying when lap time matters the most.
This led Hamilton to lament his subpar qualifying around Baku.
The same thing that I have every Saturday. Yesterday, the car felt great. And coming in today the tires did not work.Lewis Hamilton said post qualifying
The former pole-sitter claimed that the same routine of having a great car underneath him during practice sessions, which turned into a horrible one continued at the Azerbaijan GP qualifying. Moreover, Hamilton often radioed his engineer during qualifying on how the tires were not in their temperature window, which further infuriated him.
Ferrari’s strong pace around Baku leaves Mercedes bewildered
Though Ferrari won the last race around in Monza, no one expected them to be at the forefront yet again when Charles Leclerc claimed the pole around the track for the fourth consecutive year. This sudden rise in pace has left the teams shocked, especially Mercedes.
Subsequently, George Russell revealed how the German marque was not able to understand Ferrari’s rapid pace around Baku.
I think it was a fair result. Yesterday was a scrappy result and I was far away from Lewis, and today was better. Ferrari seem quick on these type of tracks. We need to understand why that is.George Russell said post qualifying
While Russell admitted his P4 qualifying to be a fair result, he questioned how Ferrari quickly got on pace. Moreover, McLaren was more than three-tenths away from the SF-24 in qualifying trim, which was the fastest car on paper, according to experts.
Apart from this, Hamilton will be a place behind Max Verstappen in the race tomorrow. So an interesting fight could develop between the two former title rivals in the race if the Brit could get ahead of the Dutchman and reduce the impact of the underwhelming qualifying of Lando Norris.
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Geetansh Pasricha
(742 Articles Published)