Lewis Hamilton F1 News: Mercedes star ROCKED by bizarre issue in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix nightmare

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Singapore, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Hamilton ROCKED by bizarre issue in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix nightmare

Lewis Hamilton has received a nightmare end to his time at Mercedes

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Saturday 7 December 2024 15:31 Updated: 16:13

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Lewis Hamilton has been rocked by a bizarre issue in a nightmare final qualifying session with Mercedes at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion was knocked out of Q1 and will start Sunday's race in P18, after he failed to improve his time during the closing stages of the session.

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However, it appeared that his Mercedes was blighted by a bizarre issue, after he hit a bollard out on track.

Kevin Magnussen tried to get out of the way of Hamilton, but ran off and knocked the bollard into the path of the Mercedes star, with the object getting trapped underneath the Brit's W15.

Lewis Hamilton will not enjoy the dream end to his Mercedes campaign

Lewis Hamilton knocked out in Q1

The impact destroyed the aerodynamic performance of Hamilton's car, and, as a result, hindered his pace on his final lap.

"I messed that lap up big time guys!" Hamilton said via team radio as Toto Wolff delivered a frustrated reaction back in the garage.

Hamilton's team-mate George Russell managed to make it into Q2, marking the 19th occasion the Brit has outqualified his older team-mate.

The 39-year-old made a damming assessment of his qualifying abilities in Qatar, where he claimed he was 'no longer fast' after his team-mate managed a front row start.

Mercedes and Hamilton will not have wanted their final race together to end this way, and the champion will have to undergo a herculean effort to recover back into the top ten on Sunday.

"Just my luck, but it's ok," Hamilton said to Sky Sports after qualifying.

"We tried so hard with the set-up, we got the car in a great place, and it was looking good in P3 so I was really thinking 'maybe a podium is possible this weekend'.

"Then the timing was not optimised with the session because I was the last one on the track and obviously I ended up behind one of the Alpines right at the end, so I just ran out of time."