Fastest in Q2, third place in Q3: Qualifying in Qatar was extremely successful for Lewis Hamilton – if it hadn’t been for Q1. Because the Mercedes driver almost had to retire there. In 14th place, Hamilton barely made it through, so he was in for a big shake.
Hamilton had been pushed to 14th place by Nico Hülkenberg and was in danger of falling out of the top 15. Because at that point, two pilots, Lance Stroll and Alexander Albon, could have achieved a faster time. The Aston Martin was definitely capable of this, as Fernando Alonso’s third place in the session shows.
But Stroll only managed 18th place, and Albon only managed to get past his teammate Logan Sargeant into 15th position, so that Hamilton was able to save himself again. “It was incredibly frustrating at that moment,” he said after the session and blamed it on bad timing.
“We left the garage a little late and couldn’t finish our lap on medium,” he says. After that you were a little “out of sync”, i.e. not in the normal rhythm like the others. Hamilton then set a first time on softs around six and a half minutes before the end, which he marginally beat again three minutes before the end.
Hamilton followed this lap with a cool-down lap before making one last attempt on the tires, but he was unable to improve again. “We just couldn’t get it together anymore. It was pretty difficult out there,” he says. “And there was a lot of traffic, so you always had to pull out pretty hard at the end of the lap.”
“But I was grateful that I got through,” said the Mercedes driver.
Suddenly strong from Q2 onwards
But from then on things went quite well for the seven-time world champion. “In Q2 we were suddenly there. That’s very, very strange,” he says. But his strong lap, which was the best time in the second section, came “too early” for him, as he says. “I wish I had gotten the lap together like that in Q3.”
Originally, there it was only enough for fifth place, half a second behind Max Verstappen. However, because both McLarens had their times canceled due to track limits, he slipped up to third place – behind teammate George Russell.
“It’s great for the whole team that we’re at the front. And George did a great job today,” he praises. “The fact that we’re so close is pretty fantastic.”
Fight with Verstappen too?
On Sunday, Hamilton wants to fight “with everyone around me” – including Max Verstappen, whose teammate has already confirmed that he will be gone after Turn 1. But Hamilton says: “I will certainly fight with the guy to my right. I will at least try everything so that I can fight.”
“Maybe, as George says, it will just disappear like in most other races, but maybe we can fight,” said the Brit.
At least he could get good points in the fight for the runner-up title, because his competitor Sergio Perez only starts from position 13. But that’s not in Hamilton’s head: “No, I’m trying to win the race,” he waves off. “I don’t care who I fight.”