Hamilton on uncharted territory for him: 'Do you get a point for this?'

F1 News

28 March 2022 at 08:10
20
  • GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton drove one of his worst weekends in years. The seven-time world champion finished on P10 in Saudi Arabia. Over the team radio, the Briton wondered if points were still being handed out so far back.

Particularly bad Saturday for Hamilton

Hamilton's qualifying was particularly poor and it was not at all what one is used to from the Briton. The Mercedes driver leads all the major record lists, including the list of most pole positions. This weekend was just very different and the Briton was beaten on the Saturday by his teammate George Russell. Starting from P15, he unfortunately couldn't do much during the race to make up for the abysmal Saturday.

Hamilton did start the race with a different strategy from the bulk of the field. On the hard tyre Hamilton intended to drive for a long time and possibly take maximum advantage of a late safety car. The late safety car came, but the Briton had the misfortune to drive on the wrong part of the track. When the yellow flags fell, Hamilton had too much speed to slow down and go around Daniel Ricciardo into the pit lane. Not long after, the entire pit lane was closed, as eventually Fernando Alonso had also come to a halt in front of the pit lane entrance. Hamilton was only able to make his tyre change very late.

Hamilton in unfamiliar territory

Despite a bad Saturday and some bad luck on Sunday, the Briton still managed to finish in the points. Although he did not seem to realize it himself. P10 is unknown territory for Hamilton. Over the board radio, an audibly disappointed Hamilton jokingly said to his engineer: "Is there actually a point to that position?" Listen back to the excerpt below.