Hamilton "nowhere" in qualifying after "glimpse of hope" in Q2 · RaceFans

Lewis Hamilton admitted he couldn’t constantly get the perfect out of his tyres in qualifying after slipping from third in Q2 to eighth on the grid.

Nonetheless the Mercedes driver was happy to have certified higher for the grand prix than he did for the dash race 24 hours earlier, when he failed to succeed in the highest 10.

“Usually it has been a significantly better day, I’d say,” stated Hamilton, who certified twelfth for the dash race. “We went forwards, at the least, within the first race, the dash race. After which qualifying, stepping into Q3, which is a optimistic.

“Q3 wasn’t actually nice, however I’m grateful to have gotten into there. However for us to be eight tenths off, it’s powerful.”

Hamilton beat Nico Hulkenberg to eighth place by lower than four-hundredths of a second. “We’re clearly combating the Haas and I don’t know if that’s the true velocity of our automotive or whether or not it’s the tyres,” he stated.

“I believe there’s rather a lot in these tyres. We’re simply struggling. We’ve not been ready to make use of all of them 12 months.”

Hamilton stated the situations had been usually constant all through the qualifying hour however he discovered it tough to supply constant lap occasions.

“The observe temperature was fairly comparable, I’d say, right through and the grip of the observe felt actually good as nicely,” he stated. “However these tyres are so delicate and attempting to get the tyres to work and to ship the utmost potential all through the entire lap is one thing that I’d say we’re combating.”

After he set the third-quickest time in Q2 on softs, he wasn’t capable of reproduce the time on the identical rubber in Q3, and switched to the medium compound on the finish of the session. “We had that glimpse of hope in Q2, after which Q3 was nowhere,” he stated.

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