Lewis Hamilton says that “each weekend is a rescue” for Mercedes following his Q2 elimination from qualifying in Imola on Friday.
Hamilton ended the session in 13th place, with cars opting not to return to the circuit for some time after Carlos Sainz’s crash due to an increase in the rain intensity.
With Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate George Russell finishing in 11th, it marked the first time since the Japanese Grand Prix weekend in 2012 that Mercedes has failed to have a car in the top 10 shootout.
Hamilton’s early qualifying drop-out is his second of the year, after he failed to progress beyond Q1 in Saudi Arabia last month.
Mercedes has endured a difficult start to the 2022 campaign, competing off the pace of Ferrari and Red Bull, leading Hamilton to state that the reigning Constructors’ champions are forced to save each weekend.
“It wasn’t a great session, naturally it’s disappointing,” Hamilton said. “We’ve come here with optimism and everyone’s working really hard at the factory.
“[When] things just don’t come together, it’s disappointing. I think we underperformed as a team today.
“There are things we should’ve done that we didn’t do and we’ll work as hard as we can to move up in the sprint race. It’s going to be a difficult race but hopefully tomorrow’s going to be better weather-wise, and hopefully we can move forward.
“We’ll just keep working very hard. Each weekend is a rescue.”
After climbing out of his car at the end of Q2, Hamilton appeared to be in a heated discussion with Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.
When asked what was being said by Wolff, Hamilton replied: “It’s all internal stuff, I’d rather not share that. We’ll just keep working. It is what it is.”
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