Lewis Hamilton makes Mercedes demand minutes after US Grand Prix qualifying nightmare

Lewis Hamilton had never qualified outside the top five for a United States Grand Prix in Austin before Saturday but only managed to go 19th quickest in a Q1 session to forget

F1 Lewis Hamilton has requested his team to launch him from the pit lane at the United States GP after an exceptional poor show in qualifying.

The seven-time world champion was only 19th quicker in Q1 on Saturday, which easily was his worst ever performance at the Circuit of the Americas. And after that he was complaining that something had been altered on his car from Sprint race earlier the day and during the qualifying.

Hamilton said: “”In the Sprint we had some sort of failure on the formation lap on the front suspension and I had that throughout the Sprint race. That made the balance really difficult.

We did change a couple of things to push us in the direction of what we would have done yesterday and the car was a nightmare today in qualifying. I should probably start in the pit lane, otherwise I will not be going anywhere. It was just an inconsistent balance and no grip.”

A Mercedes spokesperson confirmed that a bearing problem had been discovered on Hamilton’s car and fixed between the sessions. There was no immediate evidence to suggest that the issue had arisen again, but it was clear that the Brit was unhappy with how his car felt on track.

Hamilton is set to start 18th, pushed one place higher than his on-track qualifying position because of a grid penalty for Liam Lawson. But the seven-time F1 champion made it clear he wants to start from the pit lane – indirectly asking his team to break parc ferme rules and make set-up changes to improve his car.

It remains to be seen whether or not the team will choose to do that. But with Hamilton unhappy with the balance of the car in its current state, it may be difficult for him to cut through the pack and fight for point unless they make tweaks to his machine.

Things were no happier at the Mercedes garage later in the session when team-mate George Russell crashed. He was running sixth on the timesheets at the end of the session when he got out of shape at 125mph on the last flying lap and buried the car into a barrier.

Russell emerged from the accident apparently unhurt but it made the mechanics’ job at the end of the day to prepare mechanics for the race. Since there were no seconds showing on the time at the time of the crash all the people who needed to make their last qualifying run had to stop and that was the end of the qualfiying.

Lando Norris was leading at the time and as such he will start the Grand Prix on pole. Those who were on a lap when Russell crashed also did not get an opportunity to overtake his title rival but will start alongside the McLaren driver on the front row.