Hamilton ‘confused’ after shock Monaco Q2 exit
Lewis Hamilton has been left ‘confused’ after a shocking exit from the second part of qualifying, meaning the three-time world champion will start from 13th on the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix.
Having struggled with the setup of his W08 since the second practice session on Thursday, Hamilton pushed relentlessly through the day to try and find the right balance with little reward.
The Briton looked set to make Q3, however, McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne crashed at the second part of the swimming pool section taking away the potential for Hamilton to complete his lap.
“I really struggled with the car today and I just don’t think the opportunity was quite there for me,” Hamilton said.
“It was a little bit unfortunate with the yellow flag, but it doesn’t really matter now if I could have gone faster. I think that lap may have just got me into the top 10 but I would have struggled to make it into the top five with the pace that I had.”
Hamilton gave praise to team-mate Valtteri Bottas for clinching third on the grid, however, the 2016 race winner is unsure as to where the problem lies within his own car and how to rectify the issue.
“Valtteri didn’t have any struggles today so I’m a bit confused and I can’t pinpoint the problem at the moment,” the Briton added.
“I’m feeling pretty deflated right now but I’ll try again tomorrow. It’s great that Valtteri extracted a good lap. We just need to identify why I wasn’t able to be up there too.
Technical director James Allison has also been left perplexed by the problems they faced on Saturday and is keen to get to the bottom of what made Hamilton’s car so difficult to drive.
With the car now locked into parc fermé conditions, there is little that can be changed or adjusted ahead of Sunday’s race, however, starting outside of the top 10 does mean an alternative strategy is possible.
Allison said: “Clearly, we have a significant job of work on our hands to understand why the car was so difficult to drive for Lewis and to figure out what we can do with the limited adjustments we can make, and the slightly greater freedom in race strategy, to recover as good a result as possible tomorrow.”