Lewis Hamilton left clueless after "hardest" qualifying of F1 career

Turkish Grand Prix

Hamilton left clueless after "hardest" qualifying of F1 career

Mercedes driver finished five seconds behind pole pace

Ewan Gale

Saturday 14 November 2020 16:55

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton described Turkish Grand Prix qualifying as "one of the hardest" of his career and revealed he is clueless as to how his car will perform in Sunday's race.

Rain made an already chaotic weekend of action even more exhilarating in qualifying, with huge disparities between drivers throughout the field as everyone struggled for grip and tyre temperatures.

Hamilton, who had toiled throughout the day's running, saved his best for last but could only qualify sixth, five seconds adrift of polesitter Lance Stroll.

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When asked how difficult his qualifying was, the near-speechless championship leader replied: "[It was] one of the hardest, if not the hardest in terms of grip.

"Usually in the wet, it is already quite poor in general but here is like 10 times worse than any other track I have been to in terms of grip. It was a challenge but we were all in the same boat."

Hamilton and Mercedes had struggled for ultimate pace throughout the dry running on Friday, finishing 15th in the first session before recovering to fourth in the afternoon.

The team made overnight set-up changes but rain on Saturday morning scuppered their chances to search for lap time and left Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas completing just seven laps between one another ahead of qualifying.

Hamilton conceded he is now in the dark as to how his car will perform during the race, whether the track is wet or dry, and added: "I don't really have any idea what car I have underneath me.

"We changed some set-ups coming into Saturday and then it has been wet. I have no idea. If it is dry, I have no idea how it is going to feel and if it is wet, then I know it could feel as bad as it did today.

"But we just go with it. Like I said, we are all in the same boat out there, all struggling, so it is really cool. Congrats to Lance on the pole, that is pretty awesome so we look forward to a fight with them."

Before you go...

Verstappen "upset" by Red Bull tyre call that cost him Turkish GP pole

Shocked Stroll speechless after bagging maiden F1 pole