Lewis Hamilton rued delivering “bad laps” which contributed to a “disastrous” session as he propped up in sixth in Sprint Qualifying at Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Hamilton appeared to be in the mix as he ended the sole practice hour as the highest-placed driver not on Softs, but his encouraging pace dissipated when it counted.
The Briton abandoned his opening run in the first stage due to a slide at Turn 1 and a trip through the gravel, while his second attempt placed him in a precarious spot.
But while he advanced through to the closing stage, Hamilton’s single effort in the pole position put him two places and two-tenths behind team-mate George Russell.
“It wasn’t in the mix at all, the whole session was pretty disastrous from my point of view,” Hamilton bemoaned.
“What can I say, practice felt good, the car generally felt good. I don’t think we had the pace obviously to be on pole, but yeah, very bad laps.”
Hamilton cut a downbeat assessment on whether he could make up ground in the race and has put emphasis on securing a better grid berth for the main grand prix.
“Who knows, I don’t think overtaking is mega here, but we’ll give it our best,” he previewed.
“It’s usually not such an eventful race, so I think the focus will be mostly on getting a better qualifying tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, having been the closest challenger to polesitter Max Verstappen in SQ2, Russell was left scratching his head as he missed out on a place in the top three.
Russell was bemused by the pace drop and has contemplated whether pushing too much on his preparation lap contributed to him ending up over three-tenths short.
“It felt really good to be honest,” he said. “The start felt really good to be honest, and my lap felt really strong.
“I was pretty surprised at the gap, but I think I probably over-egged it on my out-laps.
“My tyres took too much life out of my tyres on the out-lap, and I think probably just took that peak grip away from it.
“That’s the only explanation I’ve got at the moment, because the lap felt strong, probably the best lap of the session for me.
“Yet, It was quite a step backwards, so P4, still a great place to be for the fight tomorrow.”
But Russell is optimistic that he can challenge the McLaren pair in the truncated encounter as he took satisfaction from Mercedes’ recent inroads being certified again.
“Definitely fighting for [a] podium, I think tomorrow in the Sprint,” he beamed.
“Obviously, eyes on the main race is the most important, but validation again that we’re kind of in this mix now.
“Probably a bit ahead of Ferrari at the moment, McLaren still seem to be a small step ahead, but it’s nice to be at the front end a bit more consistently.”
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