Lewis Hamilton said Mercedes’ instability had “messed with his mind” after recording his worst qualifying performance in 14 years in Australia. Hamilton, who has won eight pole positions at Melbourne’s Albert Park, will start Sunday’s 58-lap race from a disappointing 11th place after missing Q2.
Max Verstappen took pole position for the third time in the race so far, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on the front row as he chased a record-equalling 10 wins. Hamilton qualified eighth in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago and ninth in Bahrain the week before that.
He trails teammate George Russell, who is tied for seventh place on Sunday, at 3-0 this season, with Russell’s 18 points so far after finishing seventh and ninth in the opening two races. They have scored only 8 points against them.
“The instability of the car really messes with your mind,” said Hamilton, who finished fourth in final practice, less than a tenth off the pace. There’s a lot to fix. Our car is on a knife edge. The wind picks up in the afternoon, making cars unstable. However, other athletes are able to increase their pace in qualifying and I don’t know why.
“Despite being light on fuel, we didn’t feel the same from practice in qualifying. It’s not a good feeling for the whole team, but we’ll keep trying.”
Hamilton has not won a race since the penultimate match of the 2021 season in Saudi Arabia 57 races ago. Mercedes has adopted a different design philosophy this season, but Hamilton is not confident in the final Silver Arrow he will drive before heading to Ferrari in 2025.
“I feel the same way for the third year in a row,” the seven-time world champion continued. You have a spike like this morning’s practice and you think this might be good and then it goes away. If we can improve the stability of the car, we could be even more competitive, but there’s a lot of work to do and everyone is pushing as hard as they can.”
Hamilton’s Mercedes manager, Toto Wolff, gave a sober assessment of his team’s performance. “It’s especially overwhelming because I was under 10 seconds in the final practice,” he said. “The conditions were a little different but there are no excuses. We have a difficult car and I am angry at myself for saying this for so long, but we will continue to work on this car and try to get better. There is a need. We are where we are today not for lack of trying, but it is not enough.”
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At the far end of the grid, Verstappen’s third pole position in as many races looked under threat, with Ferrari threatening to knock the all-conquering Dutchman off his perch. But Verstappen set the bar high in front of a record crowd of just under 131,000 on Saturday at sun-drenched Albert Park, beating Sainz by 0.270 seconds.
Verstappen heads into Sunday’s main event as the clear favorite to equal his record with another win after winning the remaining nine rounds dating back to his victory in Japan in September. “Today was a little unexpected, but I’m very happy with Q3,” Verstappen said. “Both laps were great and fun. It’s been a tricky weekend so far, but we managed to get there until the end.”
Sainz, who underwent emergency surgery to remove his appendix in Jeddah just 15 days ago, added: I almost couldn’t believe I was going to have a front row seat to it this weekend. It was rusty yesterday, but I was able to get up to speed and find the pace, and the car felt good. I’m not going to lie, I’m not very comfortable during the drive, but I can manage it. ”
