George Russell briefly led the Qatar Sprint Grand Prix but finished fourth while Lewis Hamilton moved up a number of places to cross the line fifth as Mercedes dominated Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton said his Mercedes is “still difficult to drive” despite a strong performance in the Qatar Sprint Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion’s qualifying struggle continued on Saturday morning as he was eliminated in the second part of the Sprint Shootout. This left him starting 12th on the grid for the short afternoon race.
Starting on medium tires, he started slower than the soft tire riders around him. But this decision paid off later, when others lost control due to severe deterioration.
Hamilton was therefore quite satisfied when speaking after climbing to 5th place. He said: “At first, I was quite slow with medium-sized tires. However, I know that the wear will be significant and the racing will return to us.”
“Did I know I would be able to move up to fifth place? No, but I was hoping I could do it all the time. I tried to position my car as best I could, avoid problems and progress step by step. The car was still difficult to drive but our overall pace was good. I know I locked the race train. All I have to do now is work on my degree!
“That said, tomorrow we will start in third place. This was clearly a better place to queue than it is today. We should find ways to fight to maintain this stance. We know it will be difficult to hold off the McLarens. But they’re a little further behind, so we’ll do our best to get there. »
His teammate George Russell started with software and used them to good effect from the start. He moved into second place from the first corner and then took the lead, but lost to winner Oscar Piastri when his tire fell off and was also passed by Max Verstappen and Lando Norris before the finish. Regardless, he’s still a happy man, even if he’s caught off guard by how quickly his tires lose efficiency. “I really enjoyed that!” Has he declared yet? “The first round was a bit crazy. I thought of turn six as an opportunity to overtake the average riders.
“I knew I would have the advantage from the start so I was happy to beat Piastri. I was surprised to see how quickly the soft tires dropped and we were lucky to have some safe intervention cars. Without that, we could have finished outside the points.
“This is what can happen on a sprint weekend where you have limited training and limited tire knowledge. That is to say, if we are average , we will still finish P4. Nothing gained, nothing lost.”