Hamilton downbeat about his own performance: 'Disastrous'

F1 News

Hamilton upset with his own performance in Austria
28 June at 16:41
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  • Matt Gretton
  • Editor-in-Chief

Lewis Hamilton was downbeat about his performance in the sprint qualifying session during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend. The Brit qualified sixth, nearly six-tenths away from Max Verstappen's pole-position time.

Hamilton has been critical of his own performance since Mercedes found gains with their upgrades in Canada and then Spain. The seven-time World Champion even described his race in Canada as one of the worst in his Formula 1 career.

Hamilton kicking himself in Austria

Drivers only have one set of medium compound tyres available to them in SQ1. Hamilton made a mistake at the first corner of his opening lap but kept pushing. He went off the track again and had his lap time deleted. This put the Brit on the backfoot immediately, and he even had to question whether he made it through to SQ2 on the radio. 

"I wasn't in the mix at all. The whole session was disastrous from my point," Hamilton told F1TV after the session. "Practice felt good. The car felt good. I don't think we had the pace to be on pole, but very bad laps," Hamilton continued.

Hamilton will look to regain the lost ground during the sprint on Saturday but admits most of his attention will be on qualifying for the Grand Prix. "I don't think overtaking is for here but we'll give it our best. It's not usually an eventful race, so the focus will be on getting a better qualifying tomorrow."