Sir Lewis Hamiltonis facing criticism from his former Formula 1 teammate and rival Nico Rosberg for making ‘excuses’ after another underwhelming performance.
The seven-time world champion is experiencing his poorest start to a season so far, but things started well for him at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.
The Brit secured second place in qualifying for the Sprint in Shanghai, leading the race until he was overtaken by eventual winner Max Verstappen.
Although it seemed like he and Mercedes had made progress, that hope was dashed after Hamilton failed to advance from the first qualifying session, leaving him in 18th place for Sunday’s main race.
‘I just struggled – it is what it is. S*** happens,’ Hamilton said after qualifying.
‘This morning, George [Russell] and I had very similar cars but in the afternoon, we were still experimenting with the car. So I went one way, and he went the other, to see if we could find anything.
‘But yeah, it didn’t work. I’ll give it my best shot – 18th is pretty bad. When I was making the setup changes, I thought, “it can’t get any worse, surely” – and it did.’
This is not the first time Hamilton has mentioned that he and teammate Russell have pursued different car setups. However, Russell has often denied these claims, as he did in Shanghai.
The 26-year-old said: ‘We’re quite similar in our setups, we both took a similar approach, but with a small difference. Overall, the two of us had very similar directions but we made significant changes from the sprint race.’
Rosberg, Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate from 2013-2016, was unimpressed, stating on Sky Sports: ‘George has mostly outperformed Lewis. It’s now 4-1 in qualifying.
‘Lewis tends to say, “Yeah but we have different set-ups and such a big car difference”. That is his excuse, so far this year.
‘Every time he says that, George responds, “Last time I checked, the cars are pretty similar.” He has gone for that again. So it’s interesting.’
The 2016 F1 champion criticized his former rival for making costly errors on his flying lap, adding: ‘That is painful. That is seriously painful.
‘You know that the wind is coming from the back. He’d had a great lap until then. It was really unnecessary to push the limit so much.
‘For a seven-time world champion, that’s a mistake that could have been avoided. He had the brake balance too far forward. He lost at least four tenths in that moment, which easily would have put him through easily. That is a disaster.’
In response to Rosberg’s remarks, Hamilton said: ‘It wasn’t one of my best qualifying laps. I don’t blame anything on the team.
‘I’m very mentally strong. It’s not great, it’s not a mental challenge at all. Bad things happen, you know.
‘Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong. This car is on a very delicate balance so it can easily do what we did.’
Max Verstappen is going to start in the first position for the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday, with Sergio Perez, his Red Bull teammate, in second and Fernando Alonso from Aston Martin in third.
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