Disastrous Qatar F1 race “could have been worse”

Lewis Hamilton endured a torrid run to 12th place in the Qatar Grand Prix in an understeering Mercedes, although some of the damage was self-inflicted owing to a false start and a pitlane speeding penalty.

Hamilton also picked up a puncture mid-race and, in the final laps, asked the team if he could ‘box’ the car and retire – only to change his mind when he got the go-ahead.

“It could have been worse, but I finished and it’s over,” he said. “That was me at the start. And then the puncture was really unfortunate. And the pitlane, that was me as well.

“I’ll do my best, but I’ll get back up tomorrow and give it another shot.”  

Hamilton started sixth, with his Mercedes team-mate George Russell on pole. Despite jumping the start, Hamilton lost positions to Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso on the opening lap.

Both Mercedes drivers began to complain about what team boss Toto Wolff later called “horrendous understeer” and, although Hamilton passed Alonso to run eighth after the first safety car restart, he slipped back from the leading pack and was unable to challenge Perez.

On lap 34, he picked up a front-left puncture at the same time as Ferrari’s Sainz, leading to speculation that both were caused by a debris field left on the main straight when Valtteri Bottas ran over a wing mirror which had fallen off Alex Albon’s Williams.

However, both Hamilton and Sainz have suggested that other objects, such as gravel and kerbs, could have played a part since the front-left tyres – heavily stressed on this circuit – were at the limit of wear at this point in the race.

Hamilton served his five-second penalty at his pitstop but was then handed a drive-through penalty for speeding when the safety car led the field through the pitlane. This dropped him to the the back, from where he eventually recovered to 12th place, despite putting in a request to the pitwall to retire the car.

“We didn’t get the wing setting right,” he said. “It’s happened many times. Yeah, just basically not having enough front wing in the car, and the car just wouldn’t turn.

“So I was just understeering massively for a long period of time. And honestly, for me, it felt like that’s what led to the tyre failing. Maybe it was debris. I didn’t see any debris, to be honest, but it’s not ideal. It happened just as I got to the…