Painful for the seven-time world champion was that teammate George Russell was much faster. “There was clearly something wrong with the car. The back didn’t work at all, I didn’t bother with that earlier in the weekend. My apologies to the team. They work so hard and then I don’t deliver. Maybe we should make some changes to the car and I’ll start from the pit lane on Sunday.”
Hamilton was one of the drivers who indicated during the overnight meeting with the drivers that he would prefer not to drive in Saudi Arabia this weekend, after the rocket attack on a nearby oil depot. A ceasefire has now been announced and, according to Formula 1 leadership, a guarantee was already given on Friday that safety could be guaranteed.
“I don’t want to go into that. We discussed and decided as a sport,” said Hamilton, who then added: “I’m looking forward to getting out of here.”