George Russell and Lewis Hamilton led Mercedes to an early lead, but later in the short-form Sprint, both drivers lost tyre grip and found it difficult to maintain race pace.
After struggling during Saturday’s Sprint, Lewis Hamilton said he “won’t be winning” the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Similar to his teammate George Russell, Hamilton had a strong start to the short race. In the early going, he easily overcame championship rival Sergio Perez, but in the process, he depleted the majority of the goodness in his soft tires.
The Mercedes star was left a sitting duck after that. After Yuki Tsunoda passed him in the last few laps, Hamilton fell down the order to finish seventh.
It made sense that he was dejected when he talked to reporters following the session. “It was awful. It was not fun at all,” he remarked. “I started off well, but after that, I just had trouble staying balanced.
“A sudden burst of oversteer followed by a lot of understeer. I was just battling the car from the beginning. And in the end, I was without tires. How I’m going to remedy that for tomorrow is really beyond me.
“There’s no doubt that the afternoon will be lengthy. I can only presume that my setup is incorrect. What is is, what is. I’ll give the Grand Prix my all, but I definitely won’t be coming out on top. I’ll simply be attempting to control the tires a little more.”
Russell did a little better, crossing the line in fourth place. However, he was also hindered by the fact that in the first few laps, his soft tires overheated. At the conclusion of the 24-lap race, he trailed Max Verstappen by 25 seconds.
Team principal Toto Wolff said it was a blow for his team and that the outcome of the Sprint raises concerns over their pace in the main Grand Prix. “We pushed very hard at the beginning, the car was not balanced right and then you put in some sliding and it just killed the tyres,” he explained.
Asked what he meant about the balance of the Mercedes cars, he added: “I think we had too weak of a rear end and it’s balancing them on the knife’s edge. Trying to hold on to the pace was maybe something we need to learn for tomorrow. But it was a bruising day.
“I don’t think there is a magic screw you can turn and then everything is fixed. It was very odd. Everything went against us today. We need to really scratch our heads hard about what we can do for tomorrow to improve. Today wasn’t good.”
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