Lewis Hamilton could not hide his deflation after only qualifying 18th for the sprint race in Qatar on Friday night.
The 40-year-old British driver, who has endured a torrid debut campaign for Ferrari, qualified dead-last in 20th at the last race in Las Vegas for the first time, on pure pace, in his 19-year F1 career.
A week on, Hamilton fared no better over a single lap and was knocked out in SQ1 on Friday night at the Lusail International Circuit, as the seven-time world champion once again struggled to get to grips with his capricious Ferrari car.
Immediately after, a somewhat perplexed Hamilton said on team radio to race engineer Riccardo Adami: “Ah man, the car won’t go any faster.”
Asked about the session by Sky Sports F1 afterwards, Hamilton replied: “Same as always.” Queried further about whether he can look forward to anything positive on Saturday in the Gulf region, Hamilton simply said: “The weather’s nice.”
Hamilton is currently sixth in the championship standings and is facing his first season without a podium, ahead of the final two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. His replacement at Mercedes, teenager Kimi Antonelli, is only 15 points behind him in the leaderboard.
Hamilton labelled his year the “worst season ever” last weekend in Vegas and his mood did not improve after a day to forget in Qatar.
Meanwhile, Oscar Piastri took pole position for the sprint race with McLaren teammate and championship leader Lando Norris only third; George Russell separates them in second.
As for Max Verstappen, he could only manage sixth on the grid. The Dutchman and Piastri trail Norris in the standings by 24 points but, for the first time in over a year, Verstappen qualified behind his teammate at Red Bull: Yuki Tsunoda will start a spot ahead in fifth.
Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc could only qualify ninth, in another desperately disappointing showing for the men in red, with pressure building on team principal Fred Vasseur.
Hamilton and Leclerc played down words from Ferrari chairman John Elkann three weeks ago, which encouraged the star driver pairing to “talk less and focus on driving.”
