Hamilton reveals reason for Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying nightmare

Sam Cook
Saturday 18 November 2023 16:37

Lewis Hamilton has revealed that changes made to his car overnight put him 'on the back foot' in FP3, before struggling to piece a lap together during qualifying at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion will start Sunday's race from 10th, after a grid penalty for Carlos Sainz pushed him up the order.

However, Hamilton was not able to make it into Q3 for the second time in the three US-based races this season, after being caught out by track evolution.

Both Williams cars managed to qualify ahead of the Brit, along with an Alfa Romeo, the Haas of Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly's Alpine.

Hamilton's team-mate George Russell managed to put his car onto the second row of the grid, and will be starting behind three-time world champion Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.

Mercedes' overnight car changes

Now, Hamilton has explained to Sky Sports F1 quite what went wrong at the Las Vegas Street Circuit.

“Just not that great," he admitted.

"Yesterday was a little bit better and we were looking relatively competitive. Made some changes over night, FP3 was pretty poor. Kind of put me on the back foot, and then I was just trying to recover basically in qualifying which is never the place to do so.

"Just struggled with the grip, car just wasn’t working for me and it’s definitely difficult when you can’t even get through Q2, but it is what it is.”

READ MORE: F1 in Las Vegas: 5 interesting facts about the inaugural Grand Prix