A shocking elimination for Lewis Hamilton in Q1: the British driver finishes 19th in the qualifying session in Austin
This is probably one of the darkest days of “Sir” Lewis’s recent career, at the most unexpected moment: Hamilton ends the qualifying session for the United States Grand Prix early with a dreadful 19th place, ahead of only Guanyu Zhou.
A decidedly disappointing performance: Hamilton had not been eliminated in Q1 since the China Grand Prix at the beginning of 2024, marking his second elimination in the first session in what is his final season with Mercedes.
But that’s not all: the British driver had always qualified in the top 5 at the Austin Grand Prix since 2012. This statistic highlights the surprise of this negative qualifying, which will see him start from 18th place tomorrow (given the penalty for Liam Lawson), although it’s likely that his W15 will undergo significant changes, and he will thus start from the pit lane.
Hamilton commented to Sky Sport: “Error at turn 12? At the moment, we don’t have an answer; something broke during the Sprint. We tried to fix it, I think they fixed it, but the car was terrible”, concluded the Brit.
Photo: Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team