Lewis Hamilton couldn’t hide his disappointment after securing pole position with a dominant performance on Saturday, only to have it taken away from him.
The McLaren driver was excluded from qualifying after he failed to make it back to the pits on his in-lap under his own power, therefore falling foul of article 6.6.2 of the sporting regulations.
It took the stewards six hours to make a final decision, but when they did, the decision to exclude Hamilton and force him to start from 24th was a bitter pill to swollow.
“This is such a disappointment,” said Hamilton. “Today’s qualifying session was one of the best I’ve ever driven – the whole car was just rolling so smoothly – it felt fantastic,” he explained.
“But, on my slowing-down lap, my engineers told me to stop on the track, and I didn’t know why. Later, to hear that I’d been excluded from qualifying, was of course extremely disappointing.”
The 27-year-old says he will race his heart out on Sunday to get a good position when the flag falls on the 66th lap.
“But, now, looking ahead to tomorrow, I think it’s clear that it’s going to be an incredibly tough race for us. Even so, as always, I’ll never give up and I’ll give it everything I’ve got. It would mean so much to me to get a good result here in Spain: it’s such a pleasure to come here and the support I get is amazing.
“As I always say, and as I always do, whatever grid position I start a Grand Prix from, I’ll always race my heart out.”
