Lewis Hamilton confirms Abu Dhabi GP plans after more Mercedes misery in Qatar

The Qatar Grand Prix was a miserable affair for Lewis Hamilton who heads into his final Mercedes F1 race in Abu Dhabi next weekend not expecting to go out on a high

Lewis Hamilton said that his Qatar Grand Prix could only have been worse if he had not finish.

He did not even get a point, he was the 12th man to cross the line behind the car coming from the pit after puncture and two penalty laps. Both of them were his mistakes, he started overtaking at the beginning before he accelerated in the pit lane – two moments before his tyre burst when he came across a pile of debris.

Such was his evening in Losail that Jenson Button in commentary thought his old McLaren team-mate might not bother to show up in Abu Dhabi for his Mercedes swansong. But Hamilton confirmed he will be there and said: The two characters do not grow harmoniously to a bright note at the end of the film, I don’t think it will rise to a glorious crescendo… it will just fizzle out.

All that matters is us showing up and coming prepared to give it our all. Maybe it will be far much better than the past few weekends it has been giving me. I will enter it with so little expectation and expect to leave with something much better.

“It has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions and I am just grateful to be still standing. I have had great races in my life and bad races, but not too many bad ones.”

Hamilton wasn’t the only one who suffered in Losail as fellow Brit Lando Norris also got on the wrong side of the stewards. He was chasing down winner Max Verstappen when he failed to slow down for a yellow flag on the pit straight. Already assured the title, Verstappen rubbed salt in his former challenger’s wounds by reporting him over the radio.

A 10-second stop-and-go penalty meant Norris went from cruising to the podium to a lowly 10th-placed finish. And it could be crucial in the constructors’ championship fight which will go down to the final day, as Ferrari took advantage to narrow the gap to McLaren to 21 points.

Some of them considered the penalty as deserved especially Norris kept very quiet about the decision. He said: It is certainly not stupidity – if I knew there was a strip of yellow I would have slowed down. I don’t think I have missed it or lack understanding, if you don’t slow down when you are under the yellow then it is a penalty; it is a fair penalty.

Obviously, I’m disappointed I have not given them the points they deserve and instead made the job of the team so much harder than it should be. You wouldn’t think I am doing the best that I can and find yourself thinking, “I feel like I have let them down.”

For the rest there was delight for basement team Sauber who reached the points scorers for the first time this year with Zhou Guanyu coming home in a commendable eighth position. However, it might be the last race for Esteban Ocon in an Alpine car ahead of the Qatar GP. The Frenchman will take over at Haas for 2025 but will be replaced by testing driver Jack Doohan for the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi next Sunday.