Lewis Hamilton qualified for the Shanghai race in just 18th place after a miserable Chinese Grand Prix qualifying session.
Having placed second in Friday’s Sprint qualifying, he aimed to pull off the same maneuver when lining up the starting grid for the main event. Rather, on his last flying lap, he made a mistake and lost a lot of time in a corner, which ended his chances of getting another front-row start.
Hamilton therefore failed to improve on his time while the track was picking up speed and other competitors were gaining ground. After the last laps of qualifying, Hamilton found himself stranded in the 18th position. After learning that he hadn’t, he apologised to his Mercedes crew and asked race engineer Peter Bonnington whether he had survived.
Nico Rosberg predicted in his commentary that it would be “seriously painful” for his departed colleague. Moreover, Toto Wolff, the head of Mercedes, was observed fuming in the team garage while watching the video of Hamilton’s blunder and expressing shock at it.
Almost no one was left standing after the first portion of the session. Sergio Perez barely made it, finishing in fifteenth place, due to another error made by hometown hero Zhou Guanyu.
The Shanghai fans was disappointed as Zhou, who was hoping to finish in the top 10, lost a lot of time due to a lock-up and had to settle for 16th place. Sauber has demonstrated great pace so far this weekend.
Over the radio, the Chinese racer added, “I don’t know why, but it was really difficult.” I just lost every grid point entering Turn 14. And Yuki Tsunoda’s surprise Q1 leave left him equally perplexed.
“I mean, there’s definitely something going on,” the driver from Japan said over the radio, implying that his RB vehicle was having issues. I’m not f***ing 19 years old! To be honest, the lap went quite well.”
Drama lingered into the second half of the practice when Carlos Sainz’s loss of control in Q2 prompted a red flag. Even though he lost his front wing and Ferrari had to make sure no additional damage was done, his impact with the tire wall after spinning was quite mild.
Neither he nor George Russell had entered a time at the time, therefore their spots in the top 10 were in doubt. Red Bull appeared to have overcome their grip troubles from earlier in the weekend, as Max Verstappen led the timesheets by a full second.
