Lewis Hamilton said qualifying at Sochi was “one of the worst” sessions he’s ever had, despite taking pole position.
The Mercedes driver came close to being eliminated during Q2, when he had one lap time deleted and had to abandon another after the session was red-flagged.“The session was one of the worst qualifying sessions,” said Hamilton. “It was horrible. Heart in your mouth the whole way. The worst one.”
Hamilton had to pit after his first lap time was deleted in Q2 because he didn’t have enough fuel in his car for an additional lap.
“I got the time taken away, obviously, it’s the first time I’ve gone wide there for the whole weekend,” he said. “I wanted to just stay out and do another lap, just to get a banker but they said ‘come in, get new tyres’
“Then the red flag came out so I knew it was a real risk once we got out on that next tyre at the end.”
Hamilton had to switch from the medium tyre compounds to the softs for his final run, which will put him at a strategic disadvantage compared to rivals Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas.
“Ultimately, I’m starting on the soft tyre, which is not good. It’s nice being on pole but here is probably the worst place to be on pole, with the draggier cars this year.
“So undoubtedly, I’m most likely to get dragged past tomorrow and both the cars I’m racing against, they’re both on the mediums tomorrow so they’re definitely gonna make it hard to win the race.
“But nonetheless, I’m going to stay positive, try and figure out how I can navigate my way through, get a good start, whatever it may be.”
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Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
26th September 2020, 16:53
I think his words were purely based on everything until he did until Q3. There is no way that there was anything bad about his Q3 performance. That was excellent.
Zann (@zann)
26th September 2020, 17:23
Yes it was the stress wasn’t it @thegianthogweed, tho the Softs could be tricky tomorrow. They could save him off the line and into T2, with better traction and braking, but then he has to build enough of a gap to the Medium runners in P11 down before he pits.
It might be okay, if the Hards last well enough. He’ll go Soft, Hard while the others go Medium, Hard, obviously, so if he can come out ahead of the Q2 runners his pace advantage could be enough. Maybe…
Aiii (@)
26th September 2020, 17:01
Imagine if you had a session like that and didn’t have a car that was at least half a second ahead of everyone else by pretty much default.
DeanR
26th September 2020, 17:10
Then he would’ve been on pole by slightly less than a tenth. Next?
BOSS
26th September 2020, 17:19
Hahaha
Aiii (@)
26th September 2020, 17:29
If only you had realized I was talking about how much more nervous he would’ve been instead of instantly going on the fan defense lol.
Aiii (@)
26th September 2020, 17:30
If only you had realized I was talking about how much more nervous he would’ve been instead of instantly going on the fan defense lol.
ian dearing
26th September 2020, 17:53
I don’t recall him being nervous when the RB and Ferrari’s have been quicker in the last few years. Or when he’s not on pole, or when he has had penalty points to apply to qually position. In fact those who have been up against him in these situations always remark on how cool and calculated he is; no matter where the car sits in the pecking order.
But not surprised you make remarks like that after he’s got a pole or a win. It’s what you do, isn’t it? lol.
Aiii (@)
26th September 2020, 18:19
I recall some times where he got super nervous. Like Monaco 2019, for instance. Very entertaining radio messages.
Does that make Lewis somehow not the top driver of the current era? Of course not, it’s only human nature to be competing and get nervous when there’s pressure. I’d be surprised if he wasn’t.
David BR (@david-br)
26th September 2020, 19:30
@aiii Fair point, he takes each race at a time and does tend to get nervy in some races still, even when it’s obvious to everyone (but Bottas) that the wider title race is won already.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
26th September 2020, 17:22
Are we seeing a reverse Alonso developing here?
GechiChan (@gechichan)
26th September 2020, 17:56
Hamilton says this was his worst qualy, Max says it was his best but still half a second behind… Banning qualy mode seems to not make much of difference.
All this while their teammates are still scratching their heads on why they were left so far behind…
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
26th September 2020, 18:17
Hamilton was clearly discussing the qualifying where he was not good and he did have a lot of poor moments. He wasn’t discussing the end result as being bad. There wasn’t anything remotely bad about Q3, but it is obvious why he gives the words he said as overall, qualifying was chaotic and he wasn’t always on it.
David BR (@david-br)
26th September 2020, 19:27
Just generally, Hamilton seems to be in his post-post-mid-season ‘downcurve’ (yes, it’s relative). The past few seasons, since ROS departed ways with F1 and became a YouTube sensation for the under-12s, Hamilton has peaked after Spa and gone on a run of wins, more or less sewn up the title, then let up slightly (say around COTA) before another final peak at the end of the season, sometimes. This year he just had one off race, the very first one, then was devastating, and now seems to have faded jsut slightly, a bit off in practice and some aspects of qualifying, but salvaging poll and the race still (barring bad pitting decisions from his team). This race will be tough to win on paper given the tyre ‘choice’ but still, you’d bet on Hamilton winning it tomorrow.
JC
26th September 2020, 20:35
Absolutely dominating his team mate in Q3 is Lewis in a “downcurve”? Nah…
David BR (@david-br)
26th September 2020, 20:52
Hamilton usually gives an accurate assessment of his own performance. At Mugello, he said he struggled with the track and wasn’t at his best. He still won. Here too, he’s criticized his own performance so far. But he’s still on pole. Like I said, relative. Compared to Bottas, he’s still ahead of the curve.