Miserable Lewis Hamilton gives up on Brazil GP after “horrible” F1 Sprint for Mercedes.

Mercedes started well with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton making early progress, but both lost tyre grip and struggled for race pace later in the short-form Sprint

After struggling during Saturday’s Sprint, Lewis Hamilton said he “won’t be winning” the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Similar to his teammate George Russell, Hamilton had a strong start to the short race. In the early going, he easily overcame championship rival Sergio Perez, but in the process, he depleted the majority of the goodness in his soft tires.

And from there the Mercedes star was a sitting duck. Hamilton tumbled down the order to eventually finish seventh, having been overtaken by Yuki Tsunoda in the final few laps.

It made sense that he was dejected when he talked to reporters following the session. “It was awful. It was not fun at all,” he remarked. “I started off well, but after that, I just had trouble staying balanced.

“A sudden burst of oversteer followed by a lot of understeer. I was just battling the car from the beginning. And in the end, I was without tires. How I’m going to remedy that for tomorrow is really beyond me.

“It’s going to be a long afternoon, that’s for sure. I can only assume I’ve got the setup wrong. It is what it is. I’ll fight as hard as I can [in the Grand Prix], but I won’t be winning that’s for sure. I’ll just be trying to manage the tyres a bit better.”

Russell fared slightly better and managed to cross the line fourth. But he too was hampered having overheated his soft tyres in the opening laps and was 25 seconds behind winner Max Verstappen at the end of the 24-lap race.

Team principal Toto Wolff said it was a blow for his team and that the outcome of the Sprint raises concerns over their pace in the main Grand Prix. “We pushed very hard at the beginning, the car was not balanced right and then you put in some sliding and it just killed the tyres,” he explained.

When asked to elaborate on his remarks regarding the Mercedes cars’ balance, he said, “I think we had a too weak rear end and it’s balancing them on the knife’s edge.” Maybe something we should learn for tomorrow is how to maintain the pace. However, it was a painful day.

“I don’t believe that everything can be fixed by turning a magic screw. It was quite strange. Today, everything worked against us. We must seriously consider all of our options for improving tomorrow. Not a good day.”