Lewis Hamilton rues ‘disastrous’ Austrian GP sprint qualifying after ‘very bad laps’

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes at the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix

After qualifying P6 for the Austrian Grand Prix Sprint race, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton rues the “disastrous” session an “very bad laps” that may prevent a good result in the sprint race tomorrow.

“I wasn’t in the mix at all,” Hamilton stated after the end of the session. Now, rather than expend too much energy thinking about the sprint, the Mercedes driver has stated he’s turning his attention toward qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

“Disastrous” laps for Lewis Hamilton

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Speaking to media after exiting his Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton stated that he “wasn’t in the mix at all” during sprint qualifying and that “the whole session was pretty disastrous from my point.

“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’s sprint qualifying session got off on the wrong foot courtesy of a massive slide in SQ1. The outing resulted in a deleted lap time, and it took until the final moments of the session for Hamilton to set a lap time good enough for 11th.

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He pulled through to SQ3 and stuck tight to teammate George Russell’s rear wing while leaving the pit lane.

The Mercedes drivers were some of the first to set their laps in SQ3, but they were quickly knocked down the order by Max Verstappen and both McLarens.

Russell qualified in fourth, with Hamilton in sixth. Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari separated the teammates.

With limited strategy opportunities and even fewer chances to overtake, Hamilton is already turning his attention to race-day qualifying and Sunday’s Grand Prix.

“I don’t think overtaking is mega here, but we’ll give it our best,” he said when asked about his predictions for Saturday’s sprint race.

“It’s usually not such an eventful race. So I think the focus will be mostly on getting the better qualifying tomorrow.”