Mercedes reckons the interruption that occurred in qualifying contributed to the errors that thwarted Lewis Hamilton‘s win hopes in Formula 1‘s Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The German marque sustained an unanticipated upswing in competitiveness last weekend as George Russell converted his pole position to head a 1-2 with Hamilton.
But while Russell dominated proceedings, Hamilton was forced to fight through the order as mistakes on his two runs in Q3 resigned him to lining up 10th on the grid.
Hamilton, who crossed the line seven seconds behind his team-mate, asserted post-race that the win would’ve been a “breeze” had he started closer to the sharp end.
The Briton topped the opening two practice hours and had continued to look competitive until a lock-up into Turn 14 on his first Q3 attempt preceded a snap in Turn 3.
Hamilton was perplexed as he highlighted that his Mercedes W15 car had “felt different” on both his runs in the final session compared to the previous two segments.
Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin suspects the stoppage before the last stage due to Franco Colapinto’s Q2 shunt had an impact on Hamilton.
“He was very happy in Q2 and very comfortable with the car,” Shovlin told media including Motorsport Week at the Qatar Grand Prix.
“I think the interruption to the program wouldn’t have suited him.
“I think without that there’s he would have certainly been on the front row and he looked like he had a good chance of being on pole.
“But the track reset, you then got this long break while they recover the car and I think he just got out of out of that rhythm a bit.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t get two clean laps and that’s what put him in P10.”
Hamilton’s comeback surpassed expectations
Shovlin branded Hamilton’s impressive comeback a “strong performance”, one which he revealed exceeded all the pre-race simulations that Mercedes had processed.
Asked what that said about Hamilton, Shovlin replied: “That he was pretty determined to get a good result and he tried very hard to chase down George.
“But clearly George having a clear run at it from the front meant he was able to build a comfortable gap.
“But it was fantastic to see Lewis in such good form and hopefully we’ll get some more brilliant results with him before the end of the year.”
Mercedes still deciphering sudden pace surge
Russell conceded post-race that Mercedes was at a loss to explain its sudden surge, having endured a wretched run comprising one podium since the summer break.
Shovlin has explained that Mercedes is still deciphering the reason behind its emergence as the pacesetting team outside of the cooler temperatures suiting the W15.
“The honest answer is we don’t understand every bit of why we were fast there.
“For sure the cold conditions suit us and we often see that in the hottest conditions, we slip back a bit.
“But it’s always difficult because there’s inevitably an element of we move forward and others move back.
“It’s hard enough to diagnose problems with your own car let alone to try and work out what others were struggling with.
“But it was nice that the car was working well, but then if you look at the final stints of the race, Ferrari, McLaren, they were actually pretty quick.
“So I think our early pace was very impressive, our single lap was impressive, but perhaps the picture if you took the end of the race, they were certainly closer.”
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