Lewis Hamilton warned a difficult Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying session lay in store and he turned out to be right, managing only 11th on the grid while Mercedes team-mate George Russell was fourth
Toto Wolff declared himself “fed up” of underwhelming qualifying results after Lewis Hamilton struggled again at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
After practice on Friday, the seven-time world champion cautioned that it would be challenging to qualify for Q3. And he was shown to be right when he finished just eleventh on the grid, having been demoted there by teammate George Russell.
In Q3, the younger Brit made the most of it by finishing fourth fastest. However, that did not seem to lift Mercedes team principal Wolff’s spirits, as he appeared to be extremely pleased that the 2023 season would soon come to an end.
“FP3 was, I would say, dominant. [Lando] Norris could have probably been there, and would have in qualifying by the way,” he told Sky Sports. “It just didn’t come together. Probably that’s what was in the car. Expectations were higher.
“I’m fed up with having explanations on why it didn’t go well. We were good in the hot, we weren’t in the cold. [On] previous days it has been the other way around. I’m happy this was the last qualifying of the season and we will come with a new car.”
Mercedes were at least put in a stronger position by Russell. And the Brit coughed and spluttered through his post-session interview before declaring his good qualifying result had come despite his illness.
“I’ve been really ill for the last two weeks and I’ve been really, really quick, so I don’t know if I need to be ill more often or what it is,” he joked. “But for the last two weeks I’ve felt super comfortable in the car. I’ve had on average about three hours of sleep per night – maybe that’s the secret everyone has been missing!
“Mixed feelings right now. We definitely would have taken P4 ahead of the weekend but, after this morning’s performance – we were quickest every single lap – we only improved by six-tenths from practice to qualifying.
“Taking into account it was a lot colder and we had significantly less fuel in the vehicle, we didn’t take the leap that we ought to have. That was somewhat disheartening. We have a battle with Ferrari in the constructors’, however we’re about to deal with it like some other race.
“I need to battle for the platform, I need to complete the season on a high. With Carlos [Sainz] down in P16 they’re in a precarious position at the same time, as I said, we’ll deal with it like an ordinary race and I thoroughly consider we’ll have great speed the McLaren and over Charles [Leclerc], so we should see.”