Lewis Hamilton endured a new F1 career low at the Las Vegas Grand Prix as he qualified slowest in the field for the first time in his career on pure pace.
In treacherous wet conditions on the Vegas strip, Hamilton struggled throughout as the whole grid eventually switched to full-wet tyres, rarely used in modern-day F1.
Yet Hamilton – who has recorded some of his best-ever victories in wet conditions – could not optimise his Ferrari car and will start the race in 20th, having ended up 2.3 seconds slower than teammate Charles Leclerc.
The 40-year-old, who is yet to record a podium with his new team, was hindered on his final push lap due to yellow flags in the final sector and then thought he crossed the timed line on the start-finish straight too late to start another lap. Slow-motion replays have shown, however, that Hamilton actually could have started another push lap, as he crossed the line while the lights were still green.
"I don't really have words for it," a deflated Hamilton said in the media pen afterwards. "It's obviously not good enough.
“I just couldn't get temperature into the tyres, had a lot of understeer and I think one of my front brakes was glazed so I was really struggling to stop it in the corners.
"It's very annoying, of course, because in P3 the car was feeling awesome and I thought it was going to be a great day and it turned out to be the worst.
“It can't get much worse than that."
It marks a new career low: Hamilton has never qualified last on the grid previously without extenuating circumstances. Leclerc eventually qualified ninth on the grid, while Lando Norris took pole position in another giant step towards a maiden F1 world championship for the Briton.
Hamilton also has the ignominy of being the first Ferrari driver to qualify dead-last since Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Explaining his issues further at the end of Q1, Hamilton added: "I got yellow flags in the last corner and coming into Turn 17 there were yellow flags, so I had to have a lift and when I came to the line there was red.
"It was very slippery and the first set of tyres didn't work for us and I just struggled to generate the heat in the tyres for some reason.
"It's a shame because the guys have done such a great job and the car was feeling awesome in FP3 and I really felt like we had good pace, but then the rain came.
“There's not a lot to say, to be honest."
The latest chapter in Hamilton’s year to forget arrived 11 days after he was told by Ferrari chairman John Elkann to “talk less and focus on his driving”. Prior to that, Hamilton described his debut season in red as a “nightmare.”
He has now been out-qualified by Leclerc 17 times this year and is 66 points behind the Monegasque in the drivers’ standings.
Asked for his overriding feeling, Hamilton said: “I don’t really have an answer. It obviously feels horrible; it doesn’t feel good. I just have to let it go and try and come back tomorrow.
“I have done everything I could possibly do in terms of preparation. I felt like we were quickest after practice, and then you come out in qualifying 20th, and this year is definitely the hardest year.
“We have a quick car. But it will be really hard to come back from last.”
