Lewis Hamilton said he only managed a single good lap in qualifying for the Portuguese Grand Prix, after his team mate beat him to pole position by seven-thousandths of a second.
The seven-times world champion had a “difficult session” at the Autodromo do Algarve and suspects his rivals found it as challenging.“I think for everyone it’s not that easy here,” he said. “Particularly as it’s windy and quite slippery on this surface. It’s challenging for everyone.”
Hamilton used the harder medium compound tyres in Q2 to secure his place in the final 10 and ensure he starts the race at a strategic advantage. However he said that point in the session was the only part of it that went to plan.
“It was quite a messy session, really, for me. Q1 wasn’t good. Q2 I only had one good lap. I would say in the whole session generally I only had one lap, Q3 was pretty poor. Valtteri did a great job given the conditions that we’re in.”
Mercedes used the medium compound tyres again at the end of Q3, but Hamilton suspects that “probably wasn’t the right decision at the end” as neither driver managed to improve their time. He remains convinced F1’s tyre supplier Pirelli should have brought softer rubber to this weekend’s race.
“It’s just tricky out there. You see us all having to do multiple laps. The tyres are too hard here so it doesn’t work very well with the surface.
“So we have to do extra laps to get temperature [up] and at the end, just didn’t have very good grip so I didn’t do the greatest job.”
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2021 Portuguese Grand Prix
- Pirelli’s tyre choice for Portuguese GP wasn’t “too hard”, Hamilton concedes
- How Hamilton’s one-shot overtakes handed him a tyre life advantage
- 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix Star Performers
- Race gains encourage Ricciardo after ‘unacceptable’ qualifying performance
- We don’t know why we were so quick in Portugal, admits Alonso
Balue (@balue)
1st May 2021, 18:19
That’s 2 under-par qualifyings and one big race mistake already. I guess it’s the pressure of a real title fight, or maybe even age setting in.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
1st May 2021, 18:23
Goodness knows what Max’s excuse is then – given how young he is
I think you’ll also find, if you bother to look back, that Hamilton starts of virtually every season off slowly before ‘revving up’ at Barcelona
erikje
1st May 2021, 18:27
Excuse for what?
Putting to much pressure on Lewis?
Swifty
1st May 2021, 18:51
Excuse for failing to put it on pole due to his own mistakes. At least he had time for a tantrum and to push the cameras alway.
He’s got a championship winning car, there’s no more excuses.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
1st May 2021, 19:02
Eh?
Bahrain – It’s an error from Max that means he loses his chance for an easy overtake
Italy – The Mercedes pit shop made an error costing Hamilton at least 2s. Remember he was catching Max up and made an error and yes, got punished. Max made two errors, that he got away with – as happens, but let’s not pretend that he’s was error free
Today – Clearly an error from Max in qualifying
My point is, that Hamilton often starts off the season slowly. 2017 he won 1 out of the first 4, to Seb’s 2. Didn’t win any of the first three in 2018 and looked worryingly off pace as once again Sen won two. He won 2 out of the first 4 in 2019 – but was gifted one of those when the impressive LeClerc broke down at Bahrain. And last season opened up by ending Albon’s race winning chance
So either people have either have genuine memory loss or are desperate for Hamilton to be on the decline or are just on the wind up
Mitch
1st May 2021, 20:16
Ive said the same before. Hamilton consistently underperforms in the first quarter of the season, 2020 probably being the exception. But then Mercedes out develops the competition and everyone seems to forget by the end of the year.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
1st May 2021, 20:46
@Mitch
At last!! Someone with an actually correct memory as opposed to the strangely selective ones some have
If anyone bothers to do the points breakdown, they’ll see that probably only last season and 2015, did he get more points in the first half of the season.
ian dearing
1st May 2021, 20:00
I think he’s talking about Max as whist Max is level on race wins with Ham, he has less points than Ham and has a poorer qually record than Ham.
And as a lot of Maxs fans have pointed out today Max had the fastest lap despite his own error. So clearly the RB is quick enough to beat the Merc despite the drivers obvious errors.
Although personally I think its pretty equal between the two despite all the variables.
Balue (@balue)
1st May 2021, 20:11
Why do you say that when you know full well that Hamilton was fastest lap by several tenths but made errors and has admitted it. Don’t you ever get tired of this revisionism?
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
1st May 2021, 20:19
More puzzlement
Max did the best S3 time, but made an error, to such a degree it got deleted
The brilliant thing about this track, due to the changeable wind direction / humidity in early spring coastal Portugal, is that you can’t take Q2 times and assume they should have been better or equal in Q3. Hamilton was simply befuddled by the difference. What error did he make? Whenever he doesn’t get poll, understandably he nearly always assumes he must have made one
Balue (@balue)
2nd May 2021, 12:27
@banbrorace The only puzzling thing here is that you will use an illegal lap time to compare to a legal one, thinking that will pass as a legitimate arguement, and that people won’t understand that Mercedes could similarly use more of the track and thus be on a better time.
Kribana (@krichelle)
1st May 2021, 18:23
I think they were sent out late, as the Mediums clearly required two warm up laps, and I think they only did one warm up lap.
PMccarthy_is_a_legend (@pmccarthy_is_a_legend)
1st May 2021, 19:31
I love it. Track conditions were tricky today, which was great, a real challenge for these guys.
And we are seeing mistakes. The combination of track conditions and a bit of pressure from the Red Bulls and mistakes start to creep in.
It’s perfect, Mercedes and Hamilton were used to have it all their way so you never used to see any mistakes from them.
Apply a bit of pressure and the situation changes, particularly with Hamilton.
Don’t get me wrong, absolutely great driver, but every time we see Lewis under a bit of pressure, we see mistakes from him.
Bring it on Sunday.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
1st May 2021, 20:39
But what’s happening now is little different to 17/18, when everyone said that he was bucking under the pressure from Vettel
Even in 19′ he was fortunate to have won more than one out of the first four
Last season he arguably kiboshed Albon’s career in the first race!!
Rarely wins the opening race of any season
Yet suddenly a couple of errors and people think it’s something new
sebsronnie (@sebsronnie)
1st May 2021, 20:42
Not sure you’ve been watching the same Lewis as the rest of us.
knightameer (@knightameer)
1st May 2021, 19:33
Don’t worry Lewis. Its Valterri on pole. You’ll be 1st by the first corner..
Mayrton
1st May 2021, 20:41
Yeah, it’s time these two get together in the first corner. Otherwise Bottas might better just accept the situation and focus on bringing in the left-over points. He needs to take a stand (which he won’t)
Balue (@balue)
2nd May 2021, 12:29
@knightameer Likely. The teams say this track is all about preparing the tyres and that’s Bottas’ weak point. Also that he’s too much of a team player who will not really push his team mate too hard into T1. He’s said before the season he will be more selfish this year, but I doubt it. It’s too ingrained.
macradar (@macradar)
1st May 2021, 23:12
How many cm or mm is 7 thousandths on track?
TomD11 (@tomd11)
2nd May 2021, 2:58
About 40cm (I make it 41.6cm to be exact, at Bottas’s pace).
macradar (@macradar)
2nd May 2021, 8:33
Thanks for tht Tom!
macradar (@macradar)
2nd May 2021, 8:34
for that!