Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Bahrain International Circuit, 2024

Hamilton “sacrificed” qualifying performance for better race set-up

Formula 1

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Lewis Hamilton said he may have sacrificed too much of his car’s qualifying performance to improve its race pace after taking ninth on the grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

He headed second practice yesterday ahead of his team mate. But while George Russell took third on the grid, Hamilton will line up on row five.

“I think George’s position and the pace that George showed today is a real testament to the team, just how hard everyone’s worked through the winter,” he told Sky. “It’s amazing for us to have a car that we can fight with. It just really lights the fire and the flame within us drivers.

“For me, [race engineer] Bono and everyone did a great job. I just struggled with it in qualifying. Just in general today.

“Yesterday it was really good, George and I were on the same set-ups and then he went left and I went right and I think right was definitely not good for a single lap, but I felt more comfortable with more fuel, so I hope that reflects tomorrow.”

He said he “definitely sacrificed more than I hoped to” with his set-up “but I hope that it pays off tomorrow.

“We’ll see. It’s a lot of work to do to get past all those quick cars ahead of me. But it’ll be fun.”

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Just 0.225 seconds separated Russell in third from Hamilton in ninth. Team principal Toto Wolff said Hamilton’s lower starting position was a matter of “tiny margins”.

“You get the tyre in the optimum window, it’s just two-tenths the difference, and then you’re right in the game,” he said.

However he admitted the team expected more following their strong showing in practice.

“I think the P3 is okay. We thought we had a little bit more pace, we were three-tenths off pole. Yesterday it looked better, but we put the car in a sweet spot for tomorrow’s race, at least this is what we hope.”

“I think the set-up changes that we made, they contributed to this performance today,” he continued. “At the beginning of qualifying, we thought maybe we’ve taken too much performance off, sacrificed for tomorrow’s race. But then at the end we got it quite okay with George.

“Tomorrow should be better but we are still learning about this car.”

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Keith Collantine
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14 comments on “Hamilton “sacrificed” qualifying performance for better race set-up”

  1. Yeah right lol.

  2. Wonder what his excuse will be tomorrow when Russell beats him.

    1. Starting 6 places back most likely.

      1. Hamilton is finished in qualifying, so much for the new seating position, it’s going to be even more painful next season.

    2. even when he literally admits he went wrong, it is somehow still an excuse?

      “For me, [race engineer] Bono and everyone did a great job. I just struggled with it in qualifying. Just in general today.
      “Yesterday it was really good, George and I were on the same set-ups and then he went left and I went right and I think right was definitely not good for a single lap, but I felt more comfortable with more fuel, so I hope that reflects tomorrow.”

      did you read the article or just make a knee jerk comment based on the headline?
      yesterday when Lewis set the pace in FP2 everyone and their grandma was citing Max’s long runs, Hamilton’s camp acknowledged that and made setup changes and now it’s an excuse

      damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t huh?

      anyway, I’m anxious to see Hamilton’s Mercedes with a full fuel tank, that W15 is SLAMMED to the ground even with low fuel and apparently caught fire just a little yesterday scrapping.
      I wonder how it’ll do tomorrow, hopefully Hamilton doesn’t end up getting disqualified again after the race for plank wear

      1. even when he literally admits he went wrong, it is somehow still an excuse?

        Some people just can’t resist hating Lewis Hamilton. It’s wired into them somewhere. No matter what he does, they will complain. If Lewis finishes ahead of Russell, cue the conspiracy theories that Mercedes want Hamilton to win in his last season. If Lewis wins, it’ll be because Red Bull is sandbagging.

        It never stops.

    3. I wonder what Russell’s excuse will be when he finishes out of the podium places?

      Actually, i heard Hamilton was on used softs for his qualifying runs, whereas Russell had fresh softs.
      If that’s true, it would have made all the difference. The key will be what they each have to run with,
      when it really matters.

      1. I really don’t know what Lewis sees in his race engineer. Based on Russell and Lewis’ top speed, it looks like Lewis clearly opted for a strategy that would not put him at an advantage on race day, but will just end turning in to a two stop just like his teammate because his car is too slow down the straight. How retarded does it have to get.

        1. If he has lower tyre deg, that can pay off. But that’s the question.

  3. Shame yesterday’s pace wasn’t really, but not that big of a surprise.
    Considering race set-up: Hardly any car ran as low and hard as the Mercedes. Maybe they tried to change that with his car particularly although it was hard to spot any difference between him and Russel. Hopefully that doesn’t bite them back with full tanks and put them even further behind.

    1. I think his set up will reflect on his tire life. As we know Hamilton likes to run long on his tires. So he’ll very like extend the life of his tires to go for a different strategy to Russell. That’s assuming there isn’t an early safety to nullify any kind of advantage. This track is generally a safer track to run on, so we should see.

      1. nobody is going to single stint their race. Thats the problem with a car that is slow down the straight in this formula. The only hope Lewis has is if his car is good in sector 1 and he can over take in to the first turn w/ DRS. But he will end up ruining his tires faster that way.

        The fastest car/bike in a straight line usually wins at Qatar.

        Lewis just needs to make sure he beats his teammate, because Mercedes (Toto) have no interest in the opposite. And lewis talking about ‘hope’ or taking ‘risks’ is stupid, he should just copy his teammate and beat him at his own game, because I can assure everybody, Mercedes are only pulling for Russell, and Russell will have to be broken like he was last year. Because in a straight line, Lewis is breakfast, lunch and dinner for almost all the cars on the grid.

        1. *the Sakhir Circuit.

  4. This year behind GR, next year behind CL.

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