Lewis Hamilton was bemused by the sudden grip loss he experienced from FP3 to qualifying with an unchanged Mercedes Formula 1 car at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Mercedes emerged as the standout team in drier conditions in final practice and it was Hamilton who led the charge with a sizeable 0.374s gap over Max Verstappen.
However, the seven-time champion’s pace eluded him when it mattered most in Q3 as he slipped back to seventh, while team-mate George Russell took pole position.
Hamilton being unable to replicate promising practice times in crunch moments has been a consistent theme in 2024 and he was staggered as his speed “vanished”.
“The car had been feeling great all weekend,” Hamilton expressed. “I mean, firstly, congratulations to George. He did a great job. It’s really great for the team.
“Obviously, everyone’s worked so hard to bring upgrades back at the factory. So, this is going to be a real huge boost for everyone back at the factory.
“The car was feeling great all weekend and as soon as we got to qualifying, that kind of vanished for me.”
Hamilton criticised the peakiness of the Pirelli compounds earlier this season and he attributed his issues to the Soft tyre not being in the correct operating window.
“The grip just disappears from me,” he explained. “So, [practice] 3, I had plenty of pace in me and then get to qualifying and the tyres don’t work.”
Meanwhile, the Briton also denied that he had experimented with set-up changes on his W15 between the sessions, disclosing that “nothing had changed on the car”.
Russell conceded that he was surprised he couldn’t improve on his final Q3 attempt, despite having been on worn Soft rubber to post his provisional pole benchmark.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff proclaimed that the team was unable to decipher the reason behind its earlier pace potential not being replicated come the final segment.
“It seemed that Lewis was actually having the upper hand, and both cars comfortably beating everyone,” the Austrian reviewed.
“Then at the end, it got so tight, also for George and Lewis, that the time didn’t show up. We can’t comprehend at the moment why it wasn’t a little bit more in our favour.”
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