Lewis Hamilton’s reaction to Brazil GP qualifying speaks volumes about Mercedes’ hopes

When the Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying session abruptly ended due to a sudden storm, Lewis Hamilton was fifth on the timesheets, one spot ahead of George Russell.

Lewis Hamilton appeared irritated following his qualifying performance, which makes it more difficult for the British driver to finally win a Formula 1 race this weekend.

The seven-time world champion was loaded when he arrived in Sao Paulo. Having won three times at Interlagos during his Formula One career, he is an honorary citizen of Brazil.

And on media day, he was all talk and no action. The Mercedes driver told the media, “I will be ready to take the fight to [Red Bull].” “Last season, I left empty-handed; I don’t .

However, his qualifying performance has made it more difficult for him to win on Sunday. When an unexpected storm swept across the circuit and called an early end to the session, he was fifth on the timesheets.

And in response to that outcome, he delivered a pretty depressing assessment of the session. He declared, “P5 is never going to feel that great.” “I tried my hardest, though, and hopefully Sunday’s race will be better. Although the car was performing fairly well, we appeared to be a few tenths slower than the guys in the lead.

“We made some adjustments before qualifying, and the car did seem to drive a little bit better as a result. Within

Team-mate George Russell, who will line up on the third row alongside Hamilton, was a surprised as anyone by the sudden weather change. “The weather today was absolutely crazy!” he shouted. “I’ve never seen it change so drastically as that during Q3.

“I was really disappointed with my final push lap. I was sliding around and had no grip. I didn’t see that much rain on my visor, but I was one second off and I wanted to pit for new tyres as I was confident that I would be last. We ended up P6 though which, whilst the lap was disappointing and frustrating, it’s not a bad place to start.”

Explaining the slightly underwhelming result for the team, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said: “For what turned out to be our final run, we left the garage early and queued at the end of the pit lane. It was clearly right to be at the front of the pack, but we’d lost too much tyre temperature whilst waiting for the green light.

“We therefore didn’t have good grip opening the lap – that was particularly costly given that the circuit had started to get damp from the rain. It was frustrating to end up P5 and P6, but if we can get through the Aston Martins in the early stages of Sunday then we’ll be in the fight for a podium.”

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