Lewis Hamilton was left to rue the “horrible” feeling of finishing last in qualifying for Formula 1‘s Las Vegas Grand Prix, as torrential rain left him unable to make good on his Ferrari’s pace.
The Briton was confident in the lead-up to qualifying at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, with the Scuderia appearing to have enough to be in the mix for a pole position fight.
But as heavy rain descended onto the circuit before qualifying, the elements were tricky, even for a rain-mastering veteran such as Hamilton.
Unable to get a clear view amid spray from other cars, Hamilton aborted his final run after hitting a bollard at Turn 17 on his penultimate push lap, signalling a 20th-place grid start.
After the session, Hamilton revealed to media including Motorsport Week that he had been confident about securing a competitive grid slot for Saturday night’s race.
“The car was feeling great in FP3 and I honestly thought it was going to [do well], yeah, I was really, really excited. Thought finally we’d have a good day, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
Hamilton added: “I had a yellow flag in the last corner and then going into Turn 17, there was a yellow flag, so I had to lift.
“Came across the line, it was red. But I didn’t have the grip anyway, so I don’t think it would have made much difference.”
Hamilton did ‘everything I possibly could’ to prepare for wet qualifying
When asked how bad he felt about ending the day at the bottom of the pack, Hamilton said the feeling was “as bad as it gets”, explaining the difficulty of the famous Las Vegas landmarks’ lights, combined with the on-track spray, left him virtually blind to cornering.
“There was a bit of visibility with the spray and the lights,” he explained. “Yeah, I couldn’t see anything. I think I hit the bollard at one point, I just couldn’t even see the corners.”
When pushed to describe his overriding emotion in that moment, Hamilton replied: “Obviously it feels horrible, it doesn’t feel good.
“But all I can do is, I’ve just got to let it go by and try and come back tomorrow.
“I’ve done everything I could possibly do in terms of preparation, in terms of all the practice sessions.
“Today was really amazing, I just didn’t get a lap at the end, but I felt like we were quickest.”
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