Lewis Hamilton had a very consistent qualifying record at the Circuit of the Americas but lost it on Saturday with a lap that was 19th quickest out of the 20 drivers on track.
The silence took the Circuit of the Americas by surprise as the great Lewis Hamilton was out of Q1.
Hamilton is very loved in the USA and has successes in Austin. But he was the second slowest of the 20 drivers on the track in Q1 on Saturday night and was the nineteenth on the time sheet – above only Zhou Guanyu.
It is the first time since the Formula 1 champion raced here that he ever qualified outside the top five for a Grand Prix at the COTA. Sequels of that showed his Mercedes to have had a big lock-up in the process of that incredible best flying lap which cost him about half-a-second around the middle sector of the track.
Reacting to the real-time performance, a commentary team from Sky Sports F1 could not even open their mouths in disbelief. Lead commentator David Croft said: ‘That is it for Lewis Hamilton at a circuit where in terms of Grand Prix qualifying he has been no worse than fifth.’
But he has not made it out of the bottom five in the first round of qualifying! That is a huge upset… There is a bit of a hush around the track as the fans take in that particular effort from Lewis Hamilton in.”
Co-commentator Martin Brundle was similarly dumbstruck and asked: “What on earth is going on?” Hamilton was joined in exiting the session in Q1 by both Sauber and Williams cars – former Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas 18th above him, while Alex Albon edged out team-mate Franco Colapinto to go 16th fastest.
Hamilton included, all of them will make at least one step up on the grid for the race though. This is because Liam Lawson finds himself with a batch of engine penalties bequeathed to him by predecessor Daniel Ricciardo to boot and, therefore, will leave the starting line at the rear of the field after having safely negotiated his way to Q2.
It was no fun for Hamilton who had endured the same feeling in the Sprint race that took place on Saturday. He began with seven points and did move up one position to the sixth place but there was not much speed shown by him. Russell progressed to Q2 and was fifth in the Sprint, while his front tyres didn’t last; Hamilton struggled with rears.
And that difference meant confusion to both drivers in the sense that they could not make head or tail of, what was going on. Hamilton said: Definitely it was a confusing result in that he had one problem and I had another problem. I had zero pace… We are going to check that out they are and there are things we can do if we want to but its a heck of a lot hotter today than it was yesterday so obviously that’s going to be part of the problem if they are.
And Russell added: I pushed in the beginning then I was left with no tyres Raphael调用] I had a conversation with Lewis after the race and he had no rear tyres on his car at all, which means we are losing something here. It is a little bit hotter today and is also the first time we have run on these medium tyres.”